MSLN Test Dummies
by Admiral-Tigerclaw
Summary: McGreggor Archipellago is home to the TSAB's Experimental Systems Test Force. A controversial unit filled with equally controversial characters. But it may just hold the key the Aces need to stop a terrorist plot of collossal proportions.
1. PrologueChapter One: The Test Dummy

**Time Space Administration Bureau Homeworld**

**"MidChilda"**

**Northern Hemisphere; **

**2,700 km Northwest of the McGreggor Archipelago.**

**Five Thousand Feet above sea level..._**

It was wonderful weather for flying that day...

"This is TSA Test Force Unit One to any TSA Unit that can hear me..."

What appeared to be a man wrapped in heavy metal armor exploded through the clouds as he rapidly ascended above the white bank at high speed, the roar coming from an unseen force around him shattered the peace of the open sky. Only seconds later, the reason for his haste broke the cloud bank behind him. He quickly checked over his shoulder before rolling his body and dropping into a dive.

"...I am currently engaged with SIX, I say again SIX hostile cyborg type combat units! I can't shake them! Requesting Emergency Assistance! I say again: Requesting Emergency Assistance!"

He knew nobody could hear the message though. The entire area was under a blanket ECM barrier blocking long-range communications. He could only hope those back at Test Force Command were doing more than sitting around drinking tea while these, what appeared to be women, tried to kill him. He could almost hear his commander in his mind barking about how reinforcements were taking too long, and that the whole thing would be over in two minutes. For better or for worse.

There was a minor change in his heart rate and he risked a glance at the autonomous information on his Heads Up Display. His device had just reallocated some of his defensive energy to speed. Even as he recognized it and pulled out of his dive, he felt the telltale thump as he broke the sound barrier for who knows how many times now. The sudden prickling of hair on the back of his neck told him that that same boost in speed and sudden turn had saved him from another, probably rank A or AA dumb fire attack. The Device was indeed fighting for its life as much as he was fighting for his.

"DAMMIT!" he swore. "I'm really starting to get tired of this 'They shoot and I Evade' Routine!"

With six-on-one odds, it was rather bleak. He needed to blind them... Wait!

"BATTERY! Drop an Iron Howl in their face!"

There was a click in his ears that sounded like wind chimes even as he felt his heart skip a beat from the magic energy spike. The Device AI boomed an affirmation of the command.

[IRON HOWL]

And then he felt the gun-shaped device held near his side kick suddenly in his grip as an orange ball of light was propelled away from himself. Moments later, a signature move of Graf Eisen detonated like a monstrous magical flash bang. The moment it did so, he leaned back hard, pulling high Gs and he broke into a climb, pouring all the speed he had into getting high above his opposition and being in a better dog fighting angle. The high armor mass protested against this move, making it all the harder to pull off as he attempted to accelerate.

[DANGER!]

Reacting to the warning, he reflexively turned his head to look behind him, almost missing the discolored blur as it shot ahead of him. He only realized it as someone out climbing him when it materialized almost directly in front of him.

"WHAT THE-"

Just enough time to focus on the fist coming at him, and the deep purple blade behind it!

"RGH!"

A barrier snapped into existence as he reflexively crossed his arms in front of his head, bracing to stop the blow.

'WHUMP-BOOM!!!'

Finally getting a good look at one of his attackers, he noted the blue gray jumpsuit and light armor. But her face was absolutely frightening. It was one of pure business, as if this sort of thing was just another day's annoying work.

He grunted as her blow arrested his momentum, certainly allowing for those below to catch up. But that was the least of his problems. The barrier was starting to fracture under the continuing force she was exerting. A fast eye glance at his heads up display compounded the problem. He couldn't increase energy to the barrier, or there wouldn't be enough to keep this massive armor in the air, causing him to drop like a lead weight. Even as the fracture started to spider web out, he realized that this was going to end very messy. In the back of his mind, he felt the device had reached the same conclusion. In less than a moment, the fracturing accelerated as the device pulled energy off the barrier to reinforce the internal shock management and barrier jacket fields under the armor. The device was switching from active combat to emergency injury containment proactively.

And that was a truly frightening thought.

Then the barrier failed.

* * *

"AHHHH!!!! BATTERY!"

[PRIMED]

Crash sat bolt upright in his bed, a crack of thunder from a late night storm rumbled in the distance. For a second he sat there breathing heavily, feeling his own heart rate racing. After a moment, he took stock of his surroundings. He was in his own personal quarters, in the TSA Test Facility. Apparently what he'd just experienced was another one of those recurring nightmares. He'd been having them randomly for four months now.

[I AM DETECTING AN ELEVATED HEARTRATE AND INCREASED LEVELS OF ADRENALINE IN YOUR BLOOD STREAM]

The authoritarian voice of the Battery Intelligent Device was somehow comforting to hear, despite that no matter how it tried, it didn't exactly come across as... comforting in tone. However his lack of response prompted it to continue checking on his well being.

[SHALL I REQUEST MEDICAL ASSISTANCE? IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND I WILL DO SO]

"No, stand down," Crash responded. "Just a nightmare."

[HOW ABOUT A CUP OF WARM MILK?]

Crash couldn't help but laugh slightly at the seemingly harmless comment, Battery's idea of a joke. It was even funnier since that harsh authoritarian voice it had made everything sound serious.

"That actually sounds like a good idea," he sighed. "What time is it?"

[FOUR THIRTY-SEVEN AM, LOCAL TIME. CURRENT WEATHER CONDITIONS: A COLD FRONT FROM LOW PRESSURE TO THE NORTHWEST HAS BROUGHT STORMS THE GREATER MCGREGGOR ARCHIPELLIGO AREA. RAIN IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE UNTIL EIGHT AM]

The device read him well. That would have been his next question. Crash shoved the blankets away from himself and crawled out of his bed, not bothering to make it. Rain always meant that outdoor test operations would be postponed until later in the afternoon, when sky conditions were favorable for flight.

As he went about a slightly earlier than normal morning routine, he thought about his current position.

His name was Crash, or rather, that was his call sign. His name was nobody's business but the Generals in charge of the TSAB Ground forces. He was the lead test pilot for the Bureau Experimental Systems Test Force, or B.E.S.T. FORCE. Overall, a fairly nice position if you liked to play with all the new toys first. He smirked at the thought. All the fun, little of the paperwork. A perfect career, assuming you didn't mind a little risk of things exploding in your face.

Crash's call sign was not something of his own invention. It had been dubbed upon him after the first major incident he had ever been in.

He was fresh out of Cadet training, assisting Admiral Lindy Harlown in an inspection of one of the TSABs new dimensional cruisers. A nice woman really, and from the rumors, a fairly good admiral and powerful mage. Nobody was really sure how he'd done it, but he'd somehow managed to wreck that cruiser, while it was still parked in the dock, and powered down. Crash recalled the chain reaction in his mind. Lindy had handed him one of her almost accessory teas to hold while she checked a computer terminal. It was the stuff of legend almost. Despite the thrice filtered air of the cruiser and it's sterile environment of dimensional space, he had, only moments later, a compulsory urge to sneeze. Rather than sneeze on the Admiral, or into her drink, he jerked his head around hard. Unfortunately, the sudden motion had flung the contents of the tea on the computer console the Admiral was inspecting.

It all had happened so fast. The panel sparked as the liquid shorted a circuit, and they were all jolted off their feet as the main engines fired at full power. The cruiser had broken free of its mooring lines, tearing out docking clamps and construction equipment and rammed its double prow hull into the far side of the dock before the sheer mass of the facility arrested the rogue vessel.

The damage was estimated to be in the billions. And it only took eight seconds.

Half the upper ranks of the TSAB wanted him dishonorably discharged on the spot for the incident. However, Admiral Lindy had kept them at bay with that disturbingly scary smile of hers. Truth be told, they didn't have a case against him. The strangest thing was that the main power systems were completely offline, the engine control systems were in failsafe lockout, and the console he'd spilt the tea on was a recreational computer that was in no way connected to the main computer network, let alone the engine controls. The kicker? Nobody else was onboard at the time.

Luckily, nobody was hurt despite the several hundred thousand-ton warship barreling through the docking bay.

But naturally, someone had to be blamed, and he still got slapped on the wrist. Of course, six months remedial training isn't what someone would call, a slap on the wrist, but whatever. It beat having to sign away his pay for the rest of his non-existent career for the damages.

They had discovered during his remedial training, that he was REALLY GOOD at breaking things. Equipment, records, limiters, RULES... when it came time to assign him, he'd acquired a somewhat legendary name as a walking Murphy's Law. Emergency response teams called it good training. Everyone else called it anything from annoying, to dangerous.

Crash gargled some mouthwash and spat it into the sink in front of him before inspecting his teeth.

The TSA was no slouch in recognizing dangerous potential. His innate knack for finding new and creative ways to break things had him before a review board more times than most cadets could imagine possible. It was finally decided this 'potential' could be useful in a situation where the ability to break stuff on accident was considered a good thing. And he was shipped off to the BEST FORCE.

If the upper echelons of the TSA had any doubts of his abilities up to this point, he quickly stomped them flat.

He nearly blew the base HQ off the map, not two hours after he'd arrived. He liked to blame that one on the exposed power conduit and faulty feedback breaker in the mess hall.

'Speaking of the mess hall,' he thought spinning and grabbing some light clothing from his closet...

* * *

At five in the morning, there wasn't exactly much activity in the Best Force's DIFAC. A few of the facility's late night engineering staff, and some of the early morning mechanics were lounging around, munching on whatever meal they might be after, or a cup of coffee. The place was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week... since the Test Facility never really slept. Currently manning the food line was an older woman, who immediately engaged Crash in conversation on sight.

"A little early for you Crash, isn't it?"

Marilyn, the head cook, was always a morning person, preferring to be up to serving 'the most important meal of the day' to the staff of the Test Facility. If the food was going to be made, it was going to be made right. Crash had plenty of conversations about food with her, and even cooked a few times. However, after about the sixth time he'd nearly burnt the DIFAC to the ground, she'd pretty much banned him from the kitchen altogether. It wasn't that he was a bad cook, it was just, in her view, that every time he touched the stove, the recipe instantly became a Flambé'.

"I just can't sleep tonight is all," he responded. Of course, Marilyn, in her many years, was nobody's fool, and she could read him like an open book.

"Nightmares again?" she shook her head. "Four months and counting, and the psychology department at TSA Ground Command still insists you don't have post traumatic stress disorder."

"Well, they say that if all the years of blowing myself up over and over didn't cause it. There's no way a mere ten minute dogfight I successfully escaped could possibly have done it, and that I'm just being paranoid since hundreds of mages had to get psychological screening after the whole Combat Cyborg Incident."

"That's a load of bull and you KNOW it," Marilyn snapped, shaking the ladle she'd been holding directly at Crash. "I have half a mind to march right in there and tell the whole combined brass off."

"I'm sure you'll make them quiver in their over polished boots," Crash smirked. "Poison them with Akane's cooking?"

Marilyn blinked before she recalled the reference.

"Oh HELL no!" she responded in shock. "Nobody deserves that fate honey. But you know my motto: An army fights on its stomach. And if I felt so inclined, HQ would STARVE. Now what will you be having this mornin' sweetie?"

An empty threat it was not. Marilyn was probably the cornerstone in an entire grapevine of DIFAC cooks that stretched throughout the TSAB. One word from her, and within maybe a day or less, every kitchen would be shut down in protest. Even the bravest of warriors feared the Wrath of the Cook.

"Hell, I'm up, might as well get ready for a long day," he finally responded. "Full stack, go easy on the greasies though, I gotta' look after my girlish figure."

"Any less meat on those bones and you'll turn into a skeleton," Marilyn responded, slapping a country style breakfast onto his plate, complete with biscuits and gravy. As if to emphasize her point, she slapped extra sausage and gravy on. However, she had it off to the side, as not to completely ignore his request, just merely 'tempt' him.

"Thanks 'Ma', you're the best." To everyone at this facility, that was her nickname. She was like a mother to them all. And as everyone knows, Ma's cooking was the best.

"You're welcome dear," she smiled.

[DON'T FORGET THE MILK]

Crash blinked for a second, but then remembered what Battery had suggested first thing when he woke up. About the same time, there was a mild 'THUD' as Marilyn placed a large pint of milk onto his tray. It was actually a well made hot cocoa, complete with marshmallows. A quick taste test told him this had been ready previously, as it had already had time to cool down to lukewarm... just the way he liked it.

"You sent her a message in advance again, didn't you?"

[AFFIRMATIVE]

Crash turned away with a shrug to pick out a spot on one of the more sturdy looking tables in the room when he was interrupted again by Marilyn.

"Oh, Crash, one more thing: Keep your head down and try not to touch anything today." she warned. "Don's on a rampage again."

Crash rolled his eyes before half-turning to Marilyn.

"He's not still upset over the damage to the transport pad in block four is he?"

"I don't know," she replied. "He came in here about forty minutes ago hotter than a fusion reactor, screamin' 'bout this an that. He only stopped and left after I threatened to put him on a Liver and Onion diet for a month."

"How would you rank his temper today?" Crash asked. It seemed everyone in the DIFAC paused for a moment at this question.

"About Double A," she responded.

"Great..." Crashed muttered. "As if I don't have enough nightmares as it is."

"Go eat," Marilyn ordered. "Be ready on all cylinders."

Crash turned back to his task of picking a place to sit. Nearby, a group of engineers were speaking in hushed tones. At least one of them he recognized immediately.

"Hey, Chiba," he nodded at them. One of them looked up and returned his greeting with a smirk and a nod before going back to his discussion. According to the snippets he caught, it seemed to be on the aerodynamics and armor piercing capabilities of roses, and the unrealized potential for carrying sensor packages in top hats.

Settling at the end of a table nearest the door, he contemplated his news for the day. Everyone at the BEST FORCE knew Don, or Donald. He was the head mechanic, supervisor of facility maintenance, and a certified top level master engineer with multiple degrees. His job was of course, to fix whatever broke... Naturally this conflicted with Crash's natural abilities. Word was that one of these days, they would clash in an epic final super battle that would leave MidChilda a smoldering ashen wasteland unfit for microorganisms, let alone the TSAB. Luckily, this apocalypse had yet to come to pass.

Working on the eggs first, Crash couldn't help but pin Don as the most frightening force alive...

Don had a temper the likes of which the TSAB had never seen. He wasn't afraid of anything or anyone, up to and including The Three Admirals. If you broke it, be prepared for the biggest tirade you've ever heard in your life. Something Crash had become accustomed to tuning out... though he tended to wonder what he could have done with the time he lost after getting caught in one.

So of course, it had come to the point where Don had been assigned a magical rank for his temper. C was generally a Calm day, B was BAD, A was... Asshole. Double A was Aggravated Asshole... S stood for OH SHIT, and double S was SHITSTORM, and of course PMS was there at the top of the list. Nobody dared mention that one to him, even if he was aware of the other 'ranks'. Mainly for fear that there could be a rank higher than PMS.

Crash was about to attack his biscuit when a pair of hands clapped down over his eyes.

"Guess who," came a chirpy female voice.

"Asuka Langley Sorhyu?" he asked, throwing a hint of curiosity in his tone. He knew exactly who it was though.

"DUMMBKOPF!" and he was rewarded with a slap to the back of his head a moment later. "I am NOT German!"

"Okay, sorry..." the girl wandered around from behind him and flopped down on the other side of the table. "What's up Fox?"

At first glance, her spouting off a German word to the contrary did not help her claims. Fox looked almost exactly like the Anime character Crash had just identified. Her voice and spunk didn't help things much, as she sounded like a carbon copy... she was just missing A-10 connectors in her hair. But the similarities ended there. Fox was a completely different personality entirely. She wasn't self-centered, and she wasn't exactly a scholarly pinnacle of excellence.

At age fourteen, she was the TSA Test Force's number two pilot; the aptly designated Unit 02. Crash found the coincidence both funny and creepy at the same time. Needless to say, the number of Third Impact jokes that occurred in her presence had reached the point of it just being an offhand comment. Luckily, in her defense, she was shorter, and cuter, than her anime counterpart... but not by much.

"Not much," she returned after a moment. "Just noticed you were up early this morning. Nightmares again?"

"Yep," crash nodded between a chunk of sausage. "Same as before, last minute of the initial encounter."

"Still stuck with that instant replay huh?" she swiped a piece of toast from his plate and tore into it as he gave her a brief look of annoyance at her food thievery. "You should just tell yourself that you're better than that and kill it already. You took six to one odds against unquantified elements and lasted eight minutes where an entire force of mages with applied intel later got their butts handed to them on a silver platter."

In a way, Fox was right. He had lasted a good eight minutes. But then again, the only reason he'd taken the blow in the first place was because the armor plating with magical reinforcement had actually functioned as expected. Those cyborgs had hammered him good in that fight. While he'd been busy freaking out over his barrier, he instinctively knew the others were moving to assist. The one with the huge cannon had gotten a free shot off the moment the barrier dropped. It was only after taking that nearly fatal blow that he'd managed a counter attack, and it was the sheer surprise he had that allowed him the momentum to carry a combination strike that put one of them down. But still, if the armor hadn't functioned as planned, he may very well have become a statistic.

As a test pilot of course, he wasn't exactly unused to being in high threat situations, especially the kinds he'd set off. But this was different. Accidents held no intent or malice, they just happened and were predictable to a degree. Being under direct attack and engaged with something that intended to capitalize on every advantage it had to KILL him was something else entirely. He wouldn't have lasted much longer if it weren't for the timely arrival of high ranking reinforcements.

To Fox though, none of that meant anything. To her, he was the adopted Big Brother. Crash the Indestructible... or in her words. ' Crash the Test Dummy'.

"Easier said than done," he knew arguing with her wouldn't get him very far. "And quit stealing my food! Get your own plate. Sheesh."

"I already ate actually," she responded with her patented Fox Grin. "I just wanted to annoy you a little while you're still slow... dummy."

"So what about you?" he asked, changing the topic as quickly as possible. "What are you doing up so early?"

Fox froze in mid bite, her sparkling clean teeth showing longer than normal. She gulped the bite after a moment.

"You mean you FORGOT?" she asked incredulously. He returned her look with a blank one. "Crash! Today is the scheduled Level One operations field test for project Lawmaker! The test Commander Roland's been going on about for three weeks STRAIGHT. You FORGOT about that?"

"I didn't forget!" Crash snapped in defense. Fox crossed her arms over her chest and simply gave him, the Eye. "Okay, maybe a little. But I was distracted by that stupid nightmare. Sue me. You know how narrow minded I get."

Fox rolled her eyes before depositing his half eaten toast back on the plate. Crash eyed it for a moment in contemplation before slicing the chewed part off with his knife and dipping the good part in the runny yoke from his eggs.

"So, where does this involve you getting up early?" he continued after a moment. "The Commander's had tighter lips on that project then most Lost Logia have seals. He won't tell me ANYTHING. This project has been going for six months and I haven't even seen the mission statement."

"I have to be over to Block Six in thirty minutes to make sure the Naval Salvaging team is ready to deploy if something goes wrong," she explained. "All I know is that there is a chance that the item in the test could end up going down in deep water."

"That makes this a performance evaluation trial," Crash Identified. Even if he knew nothing on Project Lawmaker, he could identify the type and phase just by the procedures of a test. "That's phase four testing. Skipping concept test, safety test, and limits test stages. Someone's putting old tech to new use in a really ingenious way."

Crash knew the test phases...

PHASE ONE: Concept Proof Testing. This was usually conducted in a lab somewhere just to prove that it could be done… Generally safe outside of occasional slipups.

PHASE TWO: Safety Testing. Generally, a concept was still under suspicion until it could be proven as safe to utilize. This test phase had more safety precautions and red tape than the TSAB had paper. It also generally produced the largest number of small explosions.

PHASE THREE: Limits Testing. Crash was really familiar with this area. In fact, it was pretty much his specialty. Proven and safe to use concepts were then pushed as far as the project tech would allow, trying to find the point of failure. And that point was often found... explosively. Getting the Belken cartridge system up to modern specifications for the TSAB included extensive phase three testing, resulting in seven explosions, two of which included tests on high magic density cartridges... Both had generated Double S level magical explosions that had in turn, produced a seismic event felt as far away as the TSAB Ground HQ. Of the things learned, it was that high-energy microwaves and magic cartridges didn't mix. Safety was always an issue in phase three testing, but since the very nature of the testing was to find the failure limits, risks had to be taken. Crash's forte' in this area was his ability to break things in weird ways, but somehow come out almost completely unharmed. It had been a real boon to the BEST Force for many, many years.

PHASE FOUR: The Final Test Phase was Performance Testing. After proving the concept to function, proving it safe, and finding its limits. Then it could be thrown to the dogs to have the kinks ironed out in different test scenarios. Many of which had realistic simulations of events that could actually occur, most of them combat related. Crash was often doing phase four testing as well, since his knack for breaking things usually found a few bugs and flaws rather quickly. Mostly, if the project being worked on skipped straight to phase four testing, it generally meant that some engineer was out teaching the proverbial old dog, new tricks.

"Also," he continued his thought a moment later. "Deep water salvage probably means a FLIGHT Performance test of some kind." He scarfed the remains of an egg he'd been working on. "In fact, the fact that the commander wants aquatic salvage for a Phase Four Only project means we've got something with sensitive equipment that is not exactly easy or cheap to duplicate. Which means we've got a prototype aircraft..." he paused to think some more, eyeing the extra food 'Ma' had heaped him. Instinct suddenly told him the extra energy might be useful, so he began to rapidly munch on the extra food.

"Too much secrecy to be developing the next line in JF-700 series," he referenced the newish combat transport helicopter. "Too much secrecy for anything other than a combat vehicle of some kind."

Fox had known Crash for two years, but it still amazed her how well he knew the System. He had a One Hundred Over One Hundred rate for calling the type of project based merely on the protocols and operations for a particular test. His Logic was impeccable. Deep Water Salvage was only needed for aircraft, since those were the only things that went out far enough on a test to end up in deep water. It was even more so obvious that if it were an equipment test with a mage, like the Battery Device Field Test, it would be designated a RESCUE mission, rather than a salvage operation. All the rest of the logic he'd stated himself.

"That is... surprisingly logical," she concluded with a blink. Crash paused from finishing his meal to give her a look that said 'I thought it was obvious.'

Fox sighed before sitting up straight while Crash quickly finished his meal. After chugging down the hot cocoa in one long gulp, he slammed the Pint down on the table.

"Aaahhh..." he smiled. "Tha's the stuff!" And then he grimaced. "I'm going to feel like a blimp now..."

Fox reached down and flicked a crumb at him. Crash blinked and looked down at himself as it ricocheted of his shirt.

"You realize of course, this means war," he stated, lifting his entire messy plate. Fox rolled her eyes again and stuck out her tongue.

"You have to get fifty-two different authorizations to fire," the reply was dripping with a Holier-Then-Thou tone, implying her invulnerability to retaliation. Crash shrugged.

"True. And I don't feel like going through that much Administration Paperwork... EVER. Anyway, I should get over to TICTOCC. Maybe I can finally squeeze some kind of info out of Roland. I want to know what we're doing today some time before I'm right in the middle of it."

He rose up, dwarfing the young girl easily as he took his tray over to the conveyer that rolled them off into the mysterious depths of the kitchen beyond, then aimed for the exit. But not before showing his gratitude.

"Thanks for the food Ma," he stated.

"You're welcome sugar," she responded, right in the process of slapping some gravy on a tray belonging to an engineer.

* * *

The Test Facilities TEST OPERATIONS COMMAND CENTER, or TOCC (often referred to as 'TICTOCC' since it was busy around the clock...) was located in Block Two, on the third island of the McGreggor Archipelago. It wasn't visually impressive, but then again, from above, it was just another building. It was below the surface that it really became a marvel. TICTOCC was a hardened bunker, which was in itself, built into a lava cavity that had been formed many thousands of years before when the third island had been an active volcano. It served as a stronghold of command and control that could withstand the unpredictable results of a test gone wrong, and had the potential to act as a difficult to attack nerve center at the same time, should the facility ever come under attack.

A little something of an in-joke… Ever since the arrival of Fox, a walking fiction reference in herself. Parallels had been drawn, and somewhere, some radio operator had dubbed the control center 'GEOFRONT'. The call sign stuck, and had been in use for two years.

The place was pretty cozy. Across the main wall, the Master Situation Monitor displayed any functional map required. It was the size of a screen at a movie theater, but with insane resolution and clarity. Most of the time, a Mercator Projection of MidChilda with an overlay of the McGreggor Archipelago (within 400 nautical miles) was up. Keeping track of all local traffic and test operations, while at the same time, marking incidents around the globe.

The room had several operations terminals lined up facing the MSM for the use of various operators ranging from the central Operations Commander, to the engineers monitor consoles.

In the middle of this orchestra was the Base Command Console, pretty much an elevated and glorified console that overlooked the Operations Commander. It was here that Major General William Roland stood, his seat pushed back behind him as he scanned a weather report.

"A cold front this far south..." he muttered. "More like a slightly-less-warm front if you ask me."

Roland had a bit of a cynical edge to him. As the base commander for the TSAB's most important experimental test facility, he had to be. SOMEONE had to keep the engineers and scientists in line.

William Roland hailed from Non-administrated world 97. Earth. Before joining the TSAB, he was a tank commander with the rank of Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Military and operated out of Ft. Hood, Texas. Needless to say, he was one of the few in a position of command in the entire TSAB that actually knew, and had experience in operating as a REAL military unit. He took some amount of pride in that whenever he had to rub it in the faces of the 'Armchair Commanders' in the Bureau that called themselves Generals. He'd EARNED his position through blood, sweat, and tears and pretty much browbeat anyone he came up against into the ground if it was ever challenged. His charge was the command of this facility.

McGreggor Archipelago was home to Abenobashi Air Base, a throwback to MidChilda's older days when it was still concerned with its own petty disputes rather than sticking its nose into other dimensional space areas. The Archipelago was a seven-island chain, with the actual airbase on the first island. The second island was mostly developed as the base housing area... and resembled a resort. The third island, often-called C complex, was the actual test facility. Beyond that, the other islands were off-limits ranges, used for test exercises and proving grounds for the various 'products' the 'Mad Scientists' were always trying to come up with.

Roland ran the facility like a military base. His dedication to safety and security was due partly in his recall of his earlier days, and partly to the understanding of the volatility and sensitivity of the materials he was responsible for. There was ALWAYS someone competent on duty at TICTOCC, and he personally oversaw all high-level field tests. Nothing on McGreggor happened without his approval. Still, he couldn't help but remember that the TSAB was NOT a full level military, and as such, had relaxed restrictions on protocol and the like. Incidentally, he hated paperwork. Always had. In his own words,' any time spent filling out a report was time better spent getting the job done'. One of his first actions upon gaining command of Abenobashi AB, he had a couple of engineers 'waste their valuable time' streamlining and outright cutting as much internal paperwork and red tape out of the process as possible. Thanks to this, those working for the BEST Force considered it the best job on MidChilda, because they did their job, not stacks of paperwork.

He had MidChilda's extensively advanced computer technology to do that kind of thing for him.

"Lime, link to MIDSAT B and display imagery," he ordered.

"You got it master!" came a chirpy female voice from the console in front of him. The MSM's overlay blinked as the display modified itself, showing the clouds of the storm that had almost finished blowing through. The new AI was a recent addition to TICTOCC. The engineers had, after some persuading, set up a three AI system that divided the facility's functions amongst themselves for ease of monitoring. Roland had immediately rejected calling them the MAGI, since the place was already rife with Evangelion references, not to mention it stunk of bad omens. So instead, the Engineers had compromised, liking their fictional references too much to give up on it. So they designed the AIs after another popular fiction on base. Thus, TICTOCC was assisted by The Maidens; Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry. Roland had almost regretted allowing those engineers to get away with it when he realized the AI had personalities that matched their names.

"There you go!" Lime chirped.

On second thought though, he'd decided that the friendly tones helped with the tense atmosphere. Luckily, these AI didn't bicker like their fictional counterparts.

"The storm system should be through in another two hours," Cherry piped up. The softer AI voice was a stark contrast, but it was interesting. Suddenly, the stronger voice of the Bloodberry AI added her own comment.

"Which leaves us all the rest of the day to test away! Maybe even blow something up!"

Yep, it was interesting all right.

"Speaking of tests," Lime's disarming voice returned. "Looks like our number one demolitions expert's on his way!"

The MSM blinked, replacing the Satellite image of the hemisphere with an internal security camera view of the corridor at top level. Crash was conversing with Fox just out of the rain before she smiled in faux innocence and took off out of view at a full run into the elements. Crash then turned towards the camera shaking his head and proceeded down the hall. The image blinked to a new camera showing him approaching an elevator.

"Go ahead and bring him directly to TOCC," Roland ordered. "He's heading here anyway... might as well be the short cut."

"YAAAAY!!!!!" Lime erupted. "Crashy-washy-vashy-SMASHY!" She finished her exclamation in a singsong tone before ending in a fit of giggles. Anywhere else, an AI like this would have probably freaked someone out.

On the elevator, Crash noticed that the button he pushed didn't light up. Instead, the floor display blinked out and changed to display 'GEOFRONT EXPRESS'. Normally he had to stop two floors up, and pass a security checkpoint, two card reader doors, and wander down two flights of moving floor ramps. The express mode was internally controlled from TICTOCC.

"Commander must've seen me coming..."

When the lift doors opened, he was greeted by some crazy sounding fanfare that reminded him of an RPG game. It ended almost as abruptly as it started though, which was a good thing in TICTOCC.

"Good morning sir," he raised a lazy, but precise salute to General Roland as he stepped through the doors. The base commander returned it with a lazy salute of his own.

"Mornin' Crash," Roland responded. "Up earlier than you need to be I see."

"You know me," Crash smiled. The commander turned back towards the MSM, which had returned to the Satellite view it had originally been on.

"Yeah... The sooner to rise, the sooner you can break my expensive toys." With his back turned, Crash couldn't see his catlike grin.

"Hey, it's not like I do it on PURPOSE now," he rose to the bait. "I'm just an accident magnet."

"Oh, you know you love every minute of it!" Roland smirked over his shoulder. "Where else in all of the TSAB could you freely go around breaking everything you touch, and actually have a good reason to do so?"

The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but The Truth Crash. Where is your god NOW?

"Point," he admitted. "So where're my girls at now?"

"HEY CRASH!" Lime AI burst over the speakers. Waiting patiently (do AI possess patience?) for Crash and Commander Roland to finish their formal greeting for the morning. Usually involving the formal part, followed by a witty exchange.

"Hey'ya Lime!" Crash echoed in the room. "Crunching any good numbers this morning?"

Lime's response was even more cheerful than Roland thought possible.

"Yep! Five million petaflops in the last twenty minutes alone."

"A very good morning to you Sir," the Cherry AI toned in herself. "It's nice to note you're in suitably good physical health and are well fed."

Bloodberry AI quickly followed in on the heals of Cherry's comment.

"Which is all good because I can't WAIT to see what kind of stunts you pull on the test later today. Knock em DEAD tiger! Roowwwarrr!"

"Good morning to you too, Cherry, Bloodberry," Crash continued. "Nice to see your sister hasn't completely stolen the limelight from you... no pun intended."

The Maidens practically ADORED crash. Roland had thought at first that he'd somehow managed to break THEM too. But after a while, realized they were simply such good AIs that they were simply growing. For the most part, Lime was a chatterbox and loved to talk to Crash, who would chat with her for hours if given the chance. Cherry enjoyed calculating the variables that surrounded Crash whenever he was out in the Field. Bloodberry? If it wasn't obvious by now that she loved his tendency for random mass destruction...

"So where's the Operations Commander this morning?" Crash asked suddenly, referring to the empty chair in front of the MSM. "He's insanely punctual normally."

"Martin?" Roland asked, looking at the OPSCOM chair. "I told him to get some extra sleep this morning thanks to the rain, and told him I wouldn't argue about it, and that it was an order. He argued anyway, but I wanted to make sure he was well rested for today's test."

"Speaking of that," Crash continued. "That's actually why I'm here. You've been going on about this test forever, and just won't tell anyone a THING. You've even got Fox up early for catastrophic failure preparations without her knowing exactly what we're preparing for." He left out that he'd already pretty much assessed what they were dealing with, but didn't want to let on that he'd figured it out. Know your enemy, know yourself. Crash mentally shook his head, too much Sun Tsu.

"Heh," Roland concealed a chuckle. "You're just going to have to wait and see aren't you?"

"No spoilers!" Lime interjected. "Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise now would we?" Roland turned to face the MSM in slight agitation.

"Ladies, can I get you on Duty Mode for a few minutes? This is a serious discussion."

"Oh, okay..." Lime seemed slightly disappointed. But after a moment, there was an acknowledgement by the other two as well, and the hum of the room seemed to change to a more menacing tone.

Once they felt like they were more alone then before, Roland continued.

"Like I said, you'll have to wait for this one. It's a bit sensitive, even for my standards, so I've been keeping it very quiet."

"Come on Will," Crash requested, switching to a more informal tone. "You've got to get me something to work with. You know I hate being blind going into tests, and it also tends to mean I cause three times the damage as normal in those kinds of situation. At least give me the mission statement so I have an idea of what I'm toying with."

The commander shook his head. "No way man. As fast as this project has rolled out, and with as much as has been invested in it, I don't want to risk the Armchair Generals at TSAGCOM throwing a fit over it before I had some test data ready to fire back with. So everyone directly on the project has been both high clearance AND Need to Know. And you will get your Need to Know as soon as you need to know it, trust me on that one."

"That's crazy talk," Crash gaped. "TSAGCOM could be worried about this project? That's some serious cloak and dagger stuff."

"Not even the half of it," Roland rolled his eyes. "I will tell you this, keeping Cooper focused on this project has been a real pain in the ass."

Crash froze. "Cooper? 'Giant Robot' Cooper? Cooper 'XtraLrg' Cooper? The AI nut that designed Battery and the Maidens?"

"The same," Roland smirked. Crash quickly tried to compute in his own head how an AI programmer and Giant Robot fan crossed with a project test layout that screamed of a combat aircraft. Unless Cooper had somehow convinced the commander to let him build a giant robot or flying battlemech or something.

"Now I REALLY gotta' know more," Crash begged. Cooper, Aircraft, Giant Robots, AI: WARNING! DOES NOT COMPUTE!

"I'll let that drive you up the wall for the next few hours," Roland smirked. "I actually have to head over there and make sure he's awake in time for the test. He spent all night making the final adjustments for this morning. The rain might have bought him a few hours sleep, but I need to make sure he's up and ready. After all, this isn't just any old field test." He walked over to the OPSCOM console before he spoke. "Lime, display record RIOT SIX dated for today."

No response, but the OPSCOM monitor blinked out, displaying photos of several young ladies.

"I wanted some of TSABs most experienced on hand to give their impressions and reviews of the possibilities of this project. I figure if we can make a good impression on them with this project, we might be able to buy some of those Armchair Generals on the mainland. They're sending some higher ranking officers from that experimental Riot Force Six, who put up quite a good showing four months ago."

"JS incident wasn't it?" Crash asked.

"Yeah," the commander responded. "I'm sure you remember that one all too well."

"More than I'd like to," Crash inwardly shuddered, flashing back to a purple blade and those merciless, gold eyes.

"ANYWAY," Roland continued, interrupting the obviously disturbing thought. "We're expecting Commander Yagami Hayate, and two squadron commanders, Takamachi Nanoha, and Fate Testarossa Harlown... plus some further experienced subordinates. They should be arriving by chopper around eleven hundred hours... so I want you up on pad four waiting by ten-thirty. I'll probably end up stuck trying to get Cooper moving, so just listen for Martin's call. Once you get that, you can grab Fox and mosey on over to block four and I'll meet you there."

Crash gave the commander a perplexed look.

"And what am I supposed to do with a bunch of mainland officers to kill time?" he asked. "You know TSAGCOM tightwads and myself don't exactly mix. I barely mix with the non-tightwads without having to apologize half the time. 'Oh, I'm sorry, I accidentally set off a chain reaction that destroyed half the building because I flipped the light switch too fast.' PSHT! Sorry my ASS. I'm probably on the dartboards of every TSAB accountant on MidChilda, or I have a sixty billion bounty on my head and just got renamed a walking disaster area. Think I could complete the look if I dyed my hair blond, spiked it, and wore a red trench coat?"

Roland fought hard to suppress a laugh. DAMN it was tempting. But in the end, he could only shrug.

"You'll figure something out." He responded. "Maybe play tour guide and show them around the complex. You know this place well enough for that. Maybe if you play your cards right, you'll Get Lucky."

Crash looked at him deadpan.

"They're Officers," he stated.

"So are you," the general pointed out.

"They're ten year veterans," Crash fired back.

"They're still your age," Roland waggled his eyebrows.

"No thanks," Crash stated. "The way things tend to go around me, I see this one only ending in tears. And if these letters here are mage ranks like they read to be... I suspect MY tears. Double A Level, Triple A? Double S? A painful way to die if I piss them off. Doomsday with Don might be preferable."

"You're loss," Roland sighed. "If I were still young..."

"You mean you were young?" Crash sniped. Big mistake.

"FRONT LEAN-IN-REST POSITION!"

"Awww shit..."

Roland smirked at his little abuse of power.

"Cancel Duty Mode," he stated aloud.

"Training Time!" Lime immediately chimed in.

"The record is ninety-seven," Cherry advised next.

"Work work WORK!" Bloodberry followed up last. "When the brain is weak, make the muscles strong! Work that sexy body boy! Work it HARD!"

"Ladies," Roland stated in his most suave voice. "In Cadence."

"IN CADANCE!!!" they rang.

It was good to be the King.


	2. Chapter 2: Enter the Aces

**Forty Kilometers Northeast of the McGreggor Archipelago**

**10:45 AM**

**Three thousand Five Hundred feet above sea level..._**

The weather over McGreggor had improved rapidly once the front blew through. The mid-morning sun reflected brilliantly off the ocean below as the JF-704 helicopter thundered by at a level cruise.

_Traveling in a fried out comvie._

_On a hidden trailhead full of Zombie._

_A met a strange lady, she made me nervous._

_She took me in and gave me breakfast._

Onboard, TSAB Riot Force Section Six's team of Aces stared out the view ports as Vice hummed a song that Storm Raider was playing for him.

"It's going to be a beautiful day out here," Nanoha stated into the hum of the rotors.

Vita looked up from her seat where her arms were crossed in front of her chest.

"So what was this all about?" she asked. "I've never been to this place before."

Hayate turned from her own examination of their scenery in the cockpit and looked over her shoulder at the passengers in the back compartment.

"There's a special field test being held today," she stated. "The Test Force wanted some experienced air combat mages on hand to evaluate it. Nobody else wanted to, so we were volunteered for it instead."

"Hmph," Vita scoffed. "You mean everyone else was afraid to go, so we're stuck holding the bill. I've heard rumors about this place. We've been working our butts off, and just when we get a break..."

"It can't be that bad," Shamal smiled in an attempt to ease Vita a bit. "At the least, you can consider this a nice day out in the tropics."

"Ah yes," Signum chimed in, her normal Stoic look broken only slightly by a smirk. "Warm air, humid conditions, and masquitos that could swallow Rein whole."

"EH!?" The literally pint sized Unison girl exclaimed in horror. "Are they really that big?!"

"Huge," Vita interjected with a mischievous smirk… "With needle noses sharp as Levantin." Signum's smirk widened at the inclusion.

"Eep!" The mental image of giant killer bugs was too much for Rein, who already had her own problems with more typical sized specimens. She did her best to dive behind Fate. That was hampered by the fact that Fate herself was leaned back against her own seat.

"Let's not pick on Rein too much," Fate smiled. "We don't want to give her an inferiority complex."

On the rebound, Reinforce II popped out from behind Fate and gave her a hard glare, which wasn't very intimidating at all to tell the truth.

"Inferior!?" she snapped. "I'm a big girl too!"

She seemed to puff up a little at announcing her 'grand' presence to those in the rear compartment. It reminded Signum of a Parrot fluffing its feathers.

"We didn't say you were inferior," Nanoha's kinder voice interrupted. "

Rein pouted slightly.

_Buying bread from a man in Brussels. He was, six foot four, and full of muscles._

Before they could continue the conversation, the radio next to Vice crackled to life with the voice of an operator somewhere.

"This is Abenobashi Air Traffic Control to unidentified air vehicle. You are entering controlled airspace. Please Identify. Over."

Vice flipped a switch and responded.

"Abenobashi, this is RF-107 'Storm Raider' on approach to the McGreggor Archipelago. Requesting clearance to land. Over."

There was a pause, Hayate glanced at Vice and then out at the horizon.

The radio clicked back to life.

"Roger that Stormraider," the voice mashed the name into one word, it's tone friendlier however. "Please change heading to One, Eight, Zero. Decrease altitude to one thousand feet. We'll have a Hawkeye along shortly to escort you to landing complex C. Welcome to McGreggor, Abenobashi Out."

Vice banked Storm Raider onto the new heading and began a steady descent to the instructed altitude. The girls looked out their view ports to see the wide flattish expanse of a shield volcano island that was Abenobashi Air Base, taking up the large island below them. The volcano itself was inactive, and reports indicated it wasn't waking up any time soon.

"AH!" Everyone jerked his or her heads to the surprised cry of Rein. She was pointing at something outside the view port on the other side near her. Outside, a moderate sized aircraft could be seen descending along side them. It was a medium sized twin turboprop aircraft, solid white in color, with a large dish carried on its back. It was obviously their escort, by the 'TSAB TEST FORCE' markings on its side.

"This is Sky Eye," the radio clicked suddenly. "RF-107 Storm Raider, please follow us."

The aircraft banked gently to the right, crossed over in front of the JF-704, pulling away towards the third island in the chain. Vice banked with Sky Eye and fell into a trail position on the left.

"I don't think I've ever seen something like that before," Shamal stated.

"That's an E-2," Vice informed them from the front. Aside from flying his helicopter and practicing with his precision shooting, aircraft from different worlds was his hobby. He couldn't remember much more about it, like what world it was supposed to be from. "Very old... It's nice to see something like that put to good use."

"That thing's an outright legacy vehicle," Vita announced, her face scrunched up. "Why use it?"

"They probably packed that dish with advanced sensors and changed the power systems for the engines," Vice responded to the question. "I'm willing to say, a cheap way to keep watch all day compared to other methods of monitoring, and you know how Brass likes their budget."

"Why all the security?" she continued. Most places didn't really bother with them after ID was confirmed.

"This is the largest high security test facility in the TSAB," Hayate answered over her shoulder. "They have a lot of extremely dangerous and powerful equipment and have to keep absolute track of anything that moves. They even have special permit for the use of Mass based weapons in their testing."

Fate opened her mouth to make a response, having done an uncharacteristic double take at Hayate's nonchalant comment. But closed it again. Mass Weapons were the cause of large amounts of suffering and had nearly destroyed MidChilda over one hundred fifty years ago. However, for the moment at least, it seemed to be that the high level of security had the situation in hand. But that left her with questions. Questions she'd save for someone who better knew the answers.

Around that moment pair of F-14M Magi-Tomcats roared by going the opposite direction on their morning exercise maneuvers. The helicopter rattled from the pass as the two modified jets straddled the sound barrier without actually breaking it. These too, added to a legacy feel that was coming from the old prop aircraft guiding them.

"Wardog One and Two would like to say Hello!" Sky Eye crackled over the Radio. "They can't slow down to our speed really, so they're going to greet you one more time. Please accept it... You might want to be ready for this.... heeeeeeere, they come!"

Behind them, the two jets came around hard, spacing out on either side of Storm Raider before accelerating above Mach One under strict instructions to keep at least a one hundred fifty-meter safety margin from the helicopter and AWACS. Coming up hard and fast, they thundered by two hundred meters to each side, rolling to present their triangular overhead profiles to the passengers; just before their sonic booms jolted the helicopter.

"Showoffs," Signum rolled her eyes.

The two aircraft executed a beautiful twin crossover maneuver before flattening out and pulling back hard into climbs up and out of sight.

"Wardog has to get back to its calibrations exercise," Sky Eye crackled. "Though they say that later this evening, they're scheduled for a war games exercise with Yellow squadron over Sand Island. It's gonna' be EEEEEEEEEEEPIC."

The helicopter and AWACS reached the third island about this time. Below them, several blocks of the hazardous systems test facility rolled by. One building looked to have been recently leveled. From up here, it looked to be what was left of a transport system normally used in cruisers.

"This is your stop," Sky Eye crackled once more. "Landing pad four, on the north side of Complex C. Enjoy your stay ladies." Sky Eye's tone was seemingly all knowing all of a sudden. "Watch out for Unit One, and don't let him touch anything you might not want broken. Trust me on that one. Sky Eye out."

And with that, the E-2 rolled to forty-five degrees and began to gently bank up and away from Storm Raider before it began climbing back to its observation post somewhere above the clouds.

"Pad four," Vice chanted aloud, scanning the north side of the island for helicopter pads. "I see a pad three, and a pad two, but no pad four."

"Over there," Hayate pointed. A wide open space on top of a sturdy looking building in the northwestern corner of the island overlooking the ocean met his eyes. It had a large number '4' on it.

"Pad four it is," Vice nodded, bringing Storm Raider around in a gentle bank. He tilted the helicopter back a little as he dropped altitude, flaring it to bleed off speed for a nice approach.

After a few moments shifting around in the light crosswinds and turbulence generated by his downwash, he set the JF-704 down neatly on the helipad without any fuss. After he confirmed they were firmly settled, he cut the engines and the helicopter's rotors wound down in pitch, going from a droning hum to rapid swoosh sounds a few moments later. At the same time, the cargo ramp in the back was lowered, allowing the passengers clear access to the outside. They were greeted by salty humid air from the surrounding ocean.

"Everybody remember where we parked," Vice stated, undoing his harness.

Glad to be out of the confines of the vehicle they'd been trapped in for the last few hours, they wandered a about for a moment, stretching their stiff limbs in the arm air. It was Shamal who first noticed Crash standing by the access stairway at the edge of the deck, who had previously decided he should be conveniently out of sight during the approach and landing. He really didn't feel like tempting his luck on a helicopter full of high-ranking mages.

"Good morning!" he announced. "Have a nice trip?"

"Good morning! And yes." Hayate returned quickly. The young lady bounded over to him before coming to a stop. He raised his arm in a snap salute, which she returned before he lowered his own arm. Crash did a brief headcount of the chopper crew. Five women, a girl, and a unison unit.

"We hit a little turbulence on the way in," Vice mentioned, popping up from the far side of the helicopter. Crash retallied his headcount. "Little bit of ride for about twenty minutes, but nothing Storm Raider couldn't handle."

[NO PROBLEM!]

"Good," Crash continued. "A little rain never hurt anyone, although I fear one of these days it'll catch me in the open and I'll melt." He paused as everyone wandered over.

"Name's Crash, Major and Unit Leader for the TSAB Experimental System's Test Force. You can just call me Crash. Everyone does. Well, except the ones who call me Murphy."

He paused and did another once over, assigning names he could remember.

"You must be Lieutenant Colonel Yagami," he nodded at Hayate, he turned to the two girls flanking her. "Captain Takamachi, Enforcer Testarossa."

Crash swung his gaze further, and everyone saw his face turn into a confused grimace when he realized he could only assign three names out of the group.

"...And since my briefing on this was only three hours ago, and that I'm not exactly a good study when I'm getting smoked... I'll label the rest of you Faceless Minions of Yagami."

'Minions?' Vice thought to himself.

'FACELESS?' Vita had her own thoughts. But that was interrupted by a new voice from the stairs behind Crash.

"You're a poor study even under optimal conditions," Crash partially lidded his eyes for a moment as Fox made her way up the steps behind him. "You wouldn't remember the way to the DIFAC if your stomach didn't have a better memory than you."

Why did Fox always have to absolutely DESTROY any semblance of Ego he might have in the presence of strangers? The damage was done however, if judging by the giggles that the officers in front of him were doing a terrible job in concealing.

"Yes, yes," he admitted. "I had to stop for directions five times just to find helipad four, and three more to get up the stairs. Why are you here? I was supposed to pick you up at block six."

Fox shrugged. "Roland gave me a buzz and told me what the plan was." Then she smiled wickedly. "I had to ensure they'd make it to TICTOCC alive."

Two stabs in such a short amount of time. She'd absolutely obliterate him in short order at this rate.

Vita was still irked from being called faceless. She'd learned over the years to let things go, but it was always better to let it out then to bottle it up. And now she had a perfectly acceptable target with which to attack.

"So, who's the shrimp?"

The aces gave Vita an incredulous look. Crash however, knew this challenge would be met.

"As if you have room to speak," Fox responded. Stab, and counter stab. Survey says...

"I'm probably at least a good ten years or more your senior," Vita wasn't backing down. Fox was becoming incredibly smug.

"I guess that just makes you an Old Hag then doesn't it?"

Vita visibly lost composure, yanking back as if struck by an arrow. Rein was lurking just out of direct sight suppressing a laugh. It was like some grand karmic payback for earlier. Fox had taken on the most superior look of her fictional look-a-like possible. Crash had of course, nicknamed it the Langley Effect. Maybe Fox wasn't scholarly, or particularly self centered, but she could exchange wits far better than he could. But the short girls had to be defused before the situation erupted into a catfight. And given the magic level of the group, this would end painfully, even for Fox.

"This, SHRIMP," Crash stamped his foot, earning a glare from Fox promising retribution. "Is Test Force Unit Two, The Second Child, Captain Izumi Miyazaki, Call-sign Fox." Fox was about ready to stomp on his foot this time. "Just call her Fox."

"Captain?" Vita, who'd at some point been restrained by Signum, went from irate, to puzzled. And what the hell was Second Child?

"Well, she'd be First Lieutenant," Crash shrugged. Obviously the group hadn't seen Evangelion. "But I got promoted to Major, and Commander Roland didn't want a rank gap there, and didn't want someone less qualified filling the gap, so he just gave her a rank up. But she's good enough to fill the position, so don't expect less from her despite the age."

It wasn't really the one rank difference that bothered Vita, it was the fact that the young lady had an OFFICER rank in the first place. Nanoha hadn't had that rank when she was Fox's age, and she had two major incidents under her belt.

Crash inwardly smirked at lulling Fox into a false sense of Security. But haste makes waste.

"So," Hayate interrupted, her face flush from barely suppressed laughter at the whole exchange. The introduction was definitely more entertaining than most she'd had. "Are you going to take us to meet General Roland now?"

Crash stuck his hand behind his head.

"Actually, I was informed that he would be slightly busy when you arrived, that's why I'm here after all, not him." Admittedly, Roland would be busy about now trying to pump BigGlug coffee into Cooper and trying to drag the engineer out of bed.

"I was instructed to drag you all on an extremely boring, and ultimately mind numbing tour of the facility. I'm not a tour guide, so I guess I'll just give you the Crash Course."

Pun intended. Nanoha and Fate shared a glance, smiled, and rolled their eyes.

Turning away from the group, he made his way to the stairs past fox.

"Let's go squirt," he quipped. She nodded and turned to the Aces.

"Follow us-" and snapped around when the comment caught up with her.

Crash's revenge was slow to come, but where Fox was quick, Crash was discreet... And so the battle between them continued from day to day.

* * *

The Crash Course, as he had put it so mildly, was nothing more than randomly wandering about C complex in a loosely associated pattern. He'd somehow managed to keep the conversation lively despite more or less thinking most of what he was talking about was boring. During that time, Lt. Col. Yagami had caught him up on a few missing names, introducing him to Vita, Signum, Shamal, Reinforce Zwei, and of course, mentioning Vice. Vice however, had stayed at the helicopter to perform a few checks with assistance of some of the ground staff on the base.

Crash had shown them the DIFAC early on, where Fox had taken more stabs at his stomach. Marilyn was out somewhere on break before the start of lunch. He'd also shown them Comm Array Eleven, Don's latest pet project, and told them to avoid contact with Don at all costs.

In the thirty minutes it had taken to wander about, he'd also shown them two of the small but currently Empty concept test labs. For the most part, there hadn't been any repeat occurrences of near catfights between Vita and Fox, but they had taken the occasional stab. However, in all this, a pecking order seemed to have been established. Vita would snipe, Fox would stab back, and the wordplay would continue until Fox trapped Vita into a corner. Vita's normal response would have been to whip out Graf Eisen and start smashing, but the fact that Fox was a Captain seemed to keep her restrained. At the same time, It infuriated Vita that somehow, this little girl held such a rank. After about the first fifteen minutes of this, Vita had given up grumbling, and had fallen to the back of the group.

She'd pretty much cooled off by the time they had reached Block Ten, the ammunition and arms storage building.

"We gotta be a little careful in here," Crash stated as he came through the high security door from an internal hallway. "This is the storage building for various mass based weapons systems we use in the testing operations. The test facility has special permission by the higher ups at TSAB command to have these in our possession. Most of this is actually confiscated, though some of it was acquired through other means... whatever that means... I don't know, I don't think about it, I just work with it when I have to."

He motioned off to the side at a stack of missiles carefully placed in a crate with packing foam and some magical detonation seals placed on the fuses.

"The equipment gets used in a variety of ways, from researching their effects on magical defenses, to cataloguing their properties, to testing how well different magics work on them, and what could cause the most dangerous reactions." Crash kept strictly to the center of the room, well away from any of the weapons of various shapes and sizes, ranging from personal firearms, to full sized artillery pieces.

"There are no large scale mass based weapons, such as Nuclear Weapons," he continued.

"However, safety is an issue the base commander takes very seriously, especially when it comes to maintaining the license to keep this stuff here. Nothing goes in or out of this bunker that isn't seen by the security system here. There are overhead observation cameras every twenty feet in here. And there are observation cameras outside that monitor all angles of the building. There's so much red tape piled onto Commander Roland by the Top Brass in fact, that the only reason we've even got clearance to be in here is because he'd expected it ahead of time and called in the clearance early."

Vita noticed one of the artillery pieces they had been walking past was slightly spaced from the rest and partially set up in a firing position. What really caught her attention however, was the bright yellow tag hanging off of it. As she wandered over away from the group, she noticed the tag read 'KEEP AWAY FROM CRASH!' on it. Curious as to why, she reached out to see if the little tag had a backside.

"The M-198 that Vita is no doubt getting ready to touch," Crash's voice interrupted from ahead. "...Has a breach that is melted shut, a warped barrel, and there's a live forty-four kilogram high explosive round trapped in it. If it were accidentally set off, it would most certainly blow us all straight to Al Hazred in a heartbeat."

Vita recoiled, jumping back about two meters from the volatile weapon. The rest of the group had turned around just in time to see the action and couldn't help but break out in laughter. Even Signum cracked a smile at the result. Crash hadn't even looked over his shoulder the entire time and just continued to wander on through the storage area as if he were becoming preoccupied.

"It was damaged six weeks ago in a test operation," he continued. "I can't remember what did it because I got knocked in the head by a metal pipe right before it happened. But I think it had something to do with some little device we were testing that would magically heat the metal on the surfaces of objects to a temperature where it couldn't be directly handled... But I can't for the love of me figure out why the round didn't cook off."

"Why in HELL are you keeping an unstable weapon in an AMMO DUMP!?" Vita yelled, having shaken off her shock and embarrassment. "That's INSANE!"

"Because I normally don't come in here," Crash stated, as if it were obvious. "Which is probably the safest place on the island."

Vita's mouth cracked into a half smile and twitched slightly.

"Why does that make it a good idea to keep it in here?" Nanoha asked in an honest tone. Crash turned to her abruptly. He seemed to be getting jittery.

"Trust me," he began. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, but you'll understand perfectly why, when it happens. And you'll KNOW when it happens. For the time being, let's just get out of here before I touch something. Lord knows what kind of damage will be done if I touch something in here..." Crash shuddered visibly before hastily walking briskly towards a far exit that also had heavy duty security doors. Fox was the last one out this time, and she paused and looked back. After a moment, she shuddered herself, imagining Block Ten obliterated in a ball of fire, then quickly turned to follow the group.

* * *

"Anyway," Crash continued, once he was 'safely' out of range of Block Ten. "The Top Brass kind of treat this base like a black hole on MidChilda. The Commander's discretion is on maintaining a tight lid on any mass weapons in our possession. A kind of 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind' policy. As long as the materials themselves don't spread beyond the test ranges on and around the Archipelago, and as long as everything in use is catalogued and tracked, we generally do whatever we want with them. We're also tasked with munitions disposal, which is taken care of on the north end of D Complex... Illegal weapons not slated for test purposes are destroyed either through controlled detonations, or magical destruction."

"An alternate justification for letting this place have them," Fate stated, matter-of-factly.

"Err... yeah," Crash sighed. "Although saying 'This place exists as it is, only because Top thought it convenient we have a small disposal facility available,' is kind of demeaning, if you know what I mean."

"Like calling a fully trained Knight, nothing more than an ornamental piece," Signum added.

"Yes and no," Crash responded. "More like knowing that despite what you do, half the people up at HQ consider you the trash bin of the TSAB. But enough grim talk, let's go check out the test lab where we upgraded that old Belken cartridge system!"

Crash of course, was feeling less enthusiastic than he sounded, and his half sarcasm didn't exactly come off as enthusiastic in itself. Truth-be-told, the whole, complicated matter of Mass Weapons, and the full history of the site was not something he was willing to go into detail about. The monthly inspections that occurred were extremely thorough in ensuring all required Red Tape measures were met each and every time. The commander was nightmarishly anal about how serious those inspections were. And it had shown. In the years since he'd somehow managed to pull off gaining that approval from an equally anal Gen. Regius, there had only been one violation. A Cataloging violation on a single, almost harmless mass weapon piece. A fifty caliber, anti-material sniper rifle bullet that had somehow managed to roll under a desk away from its box, and was thus, counted as a miss number.

* * *

High safety test lab number two was their next stop, a building adjacent to the one they had seen wrecked from the air, had heavy bunker-like walls, much like, but at the same time, far less imposing than the fortress security of the Block Ten munitions storage building.

Inside, Crash had to meander them through hallways and down three levels, past a security checkpoint to reach a section that was divided into a large test room, and a shielded monitoring room.

Since today was a Level A Field-test day, the rather drab facility was all but devoid of engineers. Patchwork reconstruction and scorch marks in the test room itself showed how much the place tended to have minor explosions.

"THIS," he busted through the door. "Is test lab number two..." He waited for them to assemble inside before he continued. "Magnificent isn't it?"

Nanoha gave the room the once-over. Wide, square, and empty for the most part. White walls, white lights, some sensor equipment in the ceiling, filtered air vents, a few crates in the corners, some with equipment on them, others with yellow tags. In the middle, a small equipment worktable with wheels was parked, cleared of any contents it might have had for a test.

"Magnificent isn't quite the word I'd use," she stated.

"Utilitarian," Signum noted.

"Boring," Vita droned.

"Yeah, I was being sarcastic," Crash responded. "Sue me, I see this room several times a week and it never ceases to nearly blow me up." It was by sheer coincidence that he was standing almost perfectly in a pose that matched with a scorch mark silhouette on the wall behind him. Rein noticed it first and pointed the outline out to Shamal, who covered her mouth to suppress a slight giggle of her own.

"So this is where they did test work on updating the Belken Cartridge system," Hayate asked.

Crash nodded, then his eyes rolled up in his head as he worked hard to remember some of the tests he'd assisted with, counting off on his hand.

"Jam prevention, double feeding, miss-feeding, component stress test, premature cartridge ejection, energy misdirect management, pass through overfeed, mechanism design variance, standardization..." he paused, looking at Fox. "Hey, do you know if they kept any of that old test junk in a storage locker around here?"

Fox shrugged. The scientists and engineers were pretty much packrats when it came to test materials. It wasn't uncommon to come across stored equipment from tests as far back as thirty years ago in the component storage rooms surrounding the lab. They called it a good idea to have a component on hand in case they needed to go back many years later and review a previously unnoticed result of a test. Fox however just thought it was laziness.

Crash had his hand on his chin, giving a thought to it his question himself. It was after a few moments that he cocked his head to the side then started out the door.

"Stay here," he stated. "Yo! Bill, you back here?!"

And he was gone a moment later.

"If I know the engineers around here," Fox began. "He could be gone for an hour."

A true statement for Engineers around here really. They would test, record, test again, record more, save equipment, stuff it into boxes, stuff the boxes onto a cart, roll the cart somewhere, and stick the box wherever it would fit with a tiny hand written label while they went to lunch. Another group would come along, rearrange for their own tests, sometimes moving things to another section entirely. And before long, anything was anywhere, and finding it was a treasure hunt.

After about five minutes, it was obvious Fox's words were starting to hold true. The room filled with girls were only slightly put off by being stuck, but made due with studying the various knickknacks in a few of the open crates. It was Signum's keen eyes however, that noticed one very neatly stacked set of crates in the far corner, meticulously kept away from the rest of junk. The lid on the top of the crate was open, and amidst packing foam, was a white cylindrical casing.

"What's this?" she asked in her usual, stoic tone. It looked disturbingly like some kind of weapon.

Fox joined her at the crate, took stock of its contents, and then grabbed inside, pulling out a cleanly typed, laminated white tag with yellow and black border stripes. It only took her half a second to identify what it was for.

"Well, this is a Cataloging tag we have to have wherever a mass weapon, or component is located outside of the storage or disposal facility. We call it the RID card... because people just wish they could get RID of it..."

She turned the tag right side up, reading the details it contained aloud.

- RESTRICTED ITEM IDENTIFICATION: MW-C B10-1044D7

Fox picked off the ID in her head, it was a Mass Weapon, 'Component'....

- CATALOG DATE: Oct. 17th 075

- HAZZARD LEVEL: D (Non-threat)

- COMPONENT DESCRIPTION: AIM-120 'AMRAAM' Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile segment. Forward half. Grey cylindrical tube with white rounded cone at forward end. Yellow band near rear end of component. Serial Number Markings and Manufacturing labels just aft of forward cone.

-- ((WARNING)):: If Item does not fit description or is missing, contact T.O.C.C. Immediately citing code Delta Sierra. --

- PROCUREMENT METHOD: Confiscated from Black Market Sales.

- ORIGINAL POINT OF ORIGIN: N.A. World 79, Manufacturer 'Raytheon'

- COMPONENT NOTES: High Explosive Warhead Removed and Disposed Sep.13th. 074

Rocket motor segment Disposed Sep. 20th, 074.

Weapon confiscated from dimensional criminal ID 1044-D7. Classified: 'Illegal Arms Dealer'

- PROJECT: Big Surprise

- STATUS: CANCELLED on TSAB Order per Gen. Regius. May, 075: Reason Given: "Research classified as unnecessary waste of funding and project borderline unacceptable purpose/intent. Research to be halted and all lethal components disposed of in timely manner."

- ENGINEER NOTES:

"And another one bites the dust... Courtesy of 'Research Wrecker Regius'... The bastard."

:: E, Cooper

- TEST PURPOSE: Function test, component addition and compatibility. Disposable AMF generator housing with magic powered electronics and guidance suite.

Determining if long-range anti-mage weapon can be developed for dealing with high power hostiles with minimal risk to Administration Staff.

- ITEM STATUS: PENDING DISPOSAL, Individual Component Salvage permitted. Disposal postponed until then.

"It's harmless," Fox concluded. "Just the forward guidance component of some missile. No explosives or rocket parts."

"Good," Signum nodded. "For a second I thought someone had left a dangerous item out carelessly."

"Only Cooper does something like that," Fox stated. "But he's kept mainly in front of computers and not hazardous test materials. The guy's a certified genius, but clumsier than Crash."

'SLAM!' They jumped as the doors to the room swung open from a hefty kick Crash had given. He half-stumbled out of his kick as he entered the room with an oversized plastic box.

"Found 'em!" he informed, struggling to keep the bulky item in his grip. Signum quickly ferried herself over and gave him a helping hand with it as he made his way to the table in the center of the room.

"Dump it," he ordered.

"You sure?" Signum asked. The box seemed to contain some sensitive items.

"Nothing I haven't already broken at least once," he assured her. Signum shrugged and they dumped the box onto the test table.

Rein was the first to recognize what the mess of parts was when she flew over to the table. Device parts. More precisely, various used, damaged, or outright broken cartridge system mechanisms covering a wide range of magical device styles. Most had some kind of damage to one part or another.

"I think I spent upwards of two-hundred hours just playing with this stuff," Crash stated, looking at the mess of 'toys' before him. To him, that's what they were. Made from magically forged 'plasteel', they were tough, but had the feel of plastic, and was only twice the weight.

Nanoha was first to notice something in the pile. Reaching in, she picked up a pink cylinder about the size of her forearm. It was unmistakably the mechanism Raising Heart had for a cartridge system. However, curiously, the yellow ejection port cover was only half there, a jagged, scorched edge where it should have covered the opening. Vita was next, noticing distinct parts that looked like Graf Eisen in the mess... but it was in two pieces, as if one part had merely slid out and came completely off. Signum found her match among the pile, Levantin had a part upgrade at some point, so she'd never really seen what happened to any of the old components. It was Fate who finally found her match in the mess last, the black casing of her 'revolver' styled cartridge loader harder to spot in the jumble of black casings from other equipment.

"What happened to this?" Nanoha asked, holding the cartridge ejector out. Crash examined it, then smiled.

"I remember this one," he stated. "It's a pretty basic feed system. Magazine to chamber, pass through ejection. Pretty good, except for the port cover." He motioned to the scorched yellow cover. "If the mechanism wears down, the ejection port cover doesn't move fast enough, and that blocks the ejecting casing. The result is a missfeed when the next cartridge tries occupy the same space as its predecessor with... explosive results."

It was clear what the damage was caused by after the explanation.

"Anything wrong with this one?" Signum asked, tossing the unit to Crash. He caught it and gave an examination.

"Well, complicated as sin, but built to last... can't remember-" he stopped as he started trying to work the mechanism. After a moment he grit his teeth and started trying to pry the thing.

"These usually slide freely when unpowered," he growled... After a moment, his fingers snapped free and with a yelp, he dropped it.

"Idiot," Fox smiled.

"Jammed," he growled. "Oh yeah, melted itself shut. The holes keep it from exploding if it locks up, but the mechanism is almost impossible to get loose because the parts are all internal and hard to get at without taking it apart. It misfired and melted the slider rails for the port cover solid."

He quickly moved on to Vita's component. Of course, he didn't know these were all theirs.

"I don't think this one needs much explanation," he held the two parts in his hands. It was obvious that something had caught the loader while it was in an extended phase, and snapped it clean off. Whatever that had been however, must have been truly massive, considering Graf Eisen was directly intended for smashing things.

Crash put the two parts together. The piston mechanism was pretty simple, but obviously very intensive on the parts themselves. After a moment Crash walked over, where Fate casually handed him her Mechanism. He looked at it for a second before sliding the cover back to show the revolver mechanism in place.

"This one's pretty reliable," he stated. "Probably one of the few I didn't find a way to break in some dramatic way." He twisted the revolver mechanism. Tt gave off a metallic squeak of disuse.

"It can't double feed, nothing is ejected, so if the casing doesn't move it doesn't matter." He paused again and gave it another spin. "It's a roll mechanism instead of a piston, so there's less wear on the critical parts. The Engineers said the only trouble was if the rotation mechanism is messed up, there's a chance of it going back over a used cartridge. Nothing freakish, just kind of worthless. That, and the revolver mechanism can only hold a small number of cartridges compared to say, that one." He pointed to Nanoha's exploded mechanism.

"Just slap a larger magazine on and you're good," Hayate stated from behind the group.

"Yeah," Crash nodded.

The girls continued to examine the various parts on the table. In the ten or more years they've had them, they never really ever just sat down, and examined the components for their bland technical merit. Slide actions, pistons, rollers... They had serviced them, or had them serviced, and made sure they were in brilliant working order at all times. But to them, they were comrades in arms, not a collection of spare parts. So the concept of malfunctions seemed alien to them.

Crash continued to name off what had broken, what caused it, and generally the pros and cons of different cartridge feed systems based on the extensive testing in which he himself had been caught in explosions from.

Nanoha had never really given cartridges themselves much thought. They had been warned once when they first got them, that their devices might not be able to withstand the stress of the foreign system. Raising Heart had put those concerns aside to give its master the power she needed. She'd had a working relationship with Raising Heart for such a long time now, which never really struck her as an issue. The scorch marks served to remind her, that the little cartridges were compressed magical energy. Enough energy to charge a divine buster to blast through solid walls. Magical energy that could accidentally blow one's hand off if it were released uncontrolled. It was something that had to be respected and trusted all at the same time.

In a way, it was nice to know someone was willing to sit out here with each system, and meticulously force them to the point of failure. If only to ensure someone knew what tended to break, how it would break, and that when they were adjusted, they were safe to handle by mages who didn't know any better. It helped strengthen that bond of trust between device, and user. A bond she felt was essential to any mage.

Crash had no idea about the cartridge loaders, but Fox realized that during the explanations he'd been giving, just by the looks on everyone's faces. Looks of familiarity, not just random curiosity. She couldn't help but think about how silly this was going to be if he realized that his objective comments on each one were almost technical critiques of something the mages had been using for years. The largest giveaway was the momentary offended look Signum had given him when he'd called the ejector 'complicated as sin', only to be replaced by her stoically hidden pride when he followed it up with an honest 'built to last'. Fox shared a look with Shamal and Hayate, who realized that she had figured it out, and they smiled in understanding.

The sudden beeping of the overhead intercom is what brought them all to a stop.

After a moment, the beep was replaced by a peppermint cheerful voice that couldn't possibly be a real person.

"Hey, hey, HEY! This is _Lime_ shouting out to everyone on base. I hope everyone's doing well today! Now listen up! I have an announcement! You listening? Good! Okay! Would test pilot unit one CRASH, and Unit two FOX, along with their guests, please report to TICTOCC immediately? CRASH, FOX, report to TICTOCC, Tick-tock tick-tock! The Clock is ticking, hurry and report to TICTOCC! Heheheheh.... This is _Lime,_ signing off!"

Crash looked at the girls, and then just at Fox.

"Time to go to work," he stated.

"As if you ever work," Fox took a cheap shot.

"I work very hard thank you!" Crash countered. "You know how many times I get blown up a week?"

"Getting blown up is your idea of fun," she parried. "It doesn't count, which makes me the harder worker."

"As if!"

They wandered out the door, sniping back and forth despite the age and rank gap.

"What about the parts?" Nanoha gave a shout.

"Leave them!" Crash's voice echoed from the hall.. "Someone else will pick it up, they always do."

Nanoha turned to look at Hayate, who shrugged.

"Test pilots," she returned. "They just break it, someone else cleans up."

Nanoha returned a wry smile. Hayate seemed to forget she tested things from time to time too.


	3. Chapter 3: Lawmaker

Unlike his arrival the first time that morning, the second trip down to TICTOCC didn't privilege Crash, or the ladies he had in tow, to the Express ride straight down. So for probably the millionth time that day, (or at least, what it felt like to Crash) they found themselves showing ID cards to the personnel at a checkpoint.

Unlike most ID checks in the TSA, the security details on duty around the base actually examined the ID cards thoroughly for the group of women they didn't recognize. Crash and Fox, of course, being regulars, were on a first name basis, and their IDs were merely glanced at out of protocol. But the security was alert, and still ran everyone through a weapons check. Anything other than devices that were listed on their cards would have been confiscated. Not that this would have really done any good against the firepower of the seven ladies, but procedures involving security and safety weren't jokes around Roland.

The two Card Reader doors that were further down were much less irritating to get past.

Their greeting when they arrived in TICTOCC was something they'd never forget however. The moment the doors opened, Crash froze, and then dove sideways with only a shout of warning.

Fate was first in line of the reactionary reflexes, falling back and bolting sideways as well, as a blue robot the size of a man plowed into the group. Hayate would have been the one to get mowed down by the machine thanks to her slow reaction, if it weren't for Signum launching her own counter offensive on the machine, catching both of its hands and locking position with it. It gave a hefty roar that sounded much like the revving of an internal combustion engine, planted its feet, and began putting a significant amount of force into its aggression. Over barely audible shouts to turn it off, Signum considered dropping back and using Levantin to chop it to shreds.

Luckily, it never got that far, as there was a sudden click, and the robot relaxed and slumped over onto her.

"Aw man! I wanted to try a Vertical Brainbuster Suplex next too," a new voice whined. Signum managed to push her way past the dead weight of the robot to notice the source: A rotund man with blond hair and a bit of a goatee. He had half-moon spectacles and wore a torn white lab coat. In his hands, there was a device that looked like a convoluted cross between a video game controller, and a steering wheel.

"Cooper," Crash began, shaking his head. "I don't think it would go down very the Brass if you managed to pull off that attack. Most people don't take well to being flipped onto their skulls." He paused and looked at the robot again. "What is that thing anyway?"

"Oh!" Cooper grinned as he stepped forward. "This is just something I've been doing as a side hobby. It's a Multiple Engagement Guardian Automatic Sentinel. I just call it MEGAS."

Fox shook her head.

"You and your Robot fetish," she muttered. This was Cooper, the certifiably most intelligent idiot she'd ever known, and head of the engineering department in robotics and artificial intelligence systems; the man who designed the Maidens, Battery, and Lawmaker. Cooper was for all intents and purposes, a mad scientist in all but name. He loved wrestling (rather watching it), food, caffinated beverages, designing AI, Giant Robots, designing Giant Robots, Building Giant Robots (if someone would just let him), and watching Giant Robots smash things, like buildings.

Most of the latter part of the introduction was left out by Crash as he explained the maniac to the Aces, which Fox was happy for.

Cooper pushed a button on the controls he was holding. They immediately started retracting. The console impossibly folding down into itself many times, fitting more mass into its internal space than should have been physically possible until it had compressed itself into a simple car key, which he hooked to a chain around his neck. Nanoha noted it, and labeled it as a device in her mind.

"So where's Commander Roland?" Crash asked after a pause. Cooper turned to him as he bent over to pick the MEGAS up.

"Oh you just missed him," he stated. "He took the express up a minute ago, had something he needed to retrieve from his office. He'll meet us up on Pad One here in a little bit."

"So he left you alone in here?" Crash asked.

"Oh yeah right," another voice stated. They quickly focused on the key device around Cooper's neck. A little red light flashed on it as it spoke in a tone far more sentient than any of the devices they had themselves. "As if anyone would be dumb enough to leave Cooper ALONE in the Command Center for ANY length of time."

"Oh, come on Key," Cooper moaned. "Not in front of the guests..."

"And why not?" the Device shot back. "You're already using the MEGAS to see if you could wrestle with one of them. Don't think I don't know you better than that. You just wanted to see if it could fight an Ace. MEGAS is NOT a Toy!"

The device was arguing with him, it wasn't acting like any device they had seen. It had a personality far more dynamic, it was voicing its opinion, and it was telling its own master off. The fact that it was telling its own master off seemed to be the one everyone was hung up on.

"I must apologize for my master's childishness," Key intoned to the group. "He's brilliant, but he can be a blockhead at times."

At a loss for words, Signum merely nodded.

"Focus Cooper," Crash interrupted the bickering couple. "Who'd he leave you with? The Vice Commander?"

"That would be correct."

They jumped, even Crash. Nobody had noticed the third man in the room despite his size and the fact that he was only mere feet from Cooper. At six foot two, he was absolutely towering. And even at age sixty-two, he was still built like a tank. This was the Vice-Commander, Operations Director Martin, second in charge of facility operations, and probably the most serious person on base aside from Don.

He oversaw and managed the general schedule of events for the entire facility, directing when and where things would happen, checking that regulations were being adhered to, and acting as the Bad Cop to Roland's Good Cop. He was not without a sense of humor though, as a test force unit leader himself for nearly thirty years, he'd been there, done that, got the T-shirt. (He literally had a T-shirt that had a picture of a TSAB Test Force pilot going bug-eye as he was about to slam into the ground...) It was obvious that while Cooper was the mastermind of the MEGAS ambush, it wouldn't have gotten done without the approval of Martin. He didn't skip a beat however, going straight to seriousness once the joke had run its course.

"Cooper, get that thing out of here now, its taking up space."

Cooper worked his mouth, trying to find words to convey how 'useful' the MEGAS could be, but trying to counter any decision from the Operations Director was like trying to stop an avalanche with a piece of paper.

"I suppose that's enough duty mode," Martin continued. Crash snapped his fingers.

"I thought it was quiet."

"Well DUH!" Key intoned from Cooper's neck as he struggled with the unpowered Sentinel. The red light on the tiny device blinked a few more times before it seemed to sigh. "Just turn it back on Cooper, and walk it over to storage three down the hall."

"Oh yeah," the engineer blinked. "I was doing it the hard way." He pulled key off and it unfolded quickly into the control panel he had before.

"You would," the red light blinked from amongst displays on his miniature dashboard. A moment later, the MEGAS straightened up. Signum tightened her stance, but the robot merely walked past her and out the door.

"Ladies, Cancel Duty Mode," Martin ordered.

"Well, that was interesting to watch," Lime's voice echoed on the main room speakers and the MSM, currently displaying the usual, blinked to show a virtual render of her face. It blinked again as the other two AI came out of Duty mode, displaying their faces in tandem to hers.

"It is an honor to meet such distinguished guests," Cherry chirped in. She'd already processed their files earlier that morning after Lime had been told to bring them up. "I hope your visit will be a pleasant one."

"Those are," Nanoha began, but Martin finished the statement.

"Advanced Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence," he informed. "AI-squared. Cooper's specialty, and despite his less favorable characteristics, an area in which he is undeniably an expert. These are the Test Operation Command Center's new AI units, the triple redundant AI management system, The Maidens. On your left is Cherry. A little reserved, but she's got a feisty side. She's in charge of logistics and probability calculations."

"Pleased to meet you," the AI's digital persona was dressed in a pink kimono, had bright purple hair, and had two huge orbs in her hair.

"In the middle," he continued. "We have Lime. Eternally cheerful, and a dominant voice around here. She's in charge of general management and monitoring."

"HELOOOOO!!!!!" Lime squealed. She had dark blue hair, and seemed to wear a yellow bandana on her head with its own massive orb.

"On the right," Martin wanted to get introductions over with before Lime could launch into a tirade. "Bloodberry. She's pretty direct. Test Supervisor, base security, and tactical assessment are her jurisdiction."

"How's it going?" the third AI smiled. Her blood red ponytail made it easy to remember her name immediately.

"I'm sure they've already processed and reprocessed the entire TSAB file library on you ladies," Martin continued. "So I don't believe cross introductions are required."

He turned quickly and walked back towards his console, his boots creating a formidable echo as he strode.

"Now, here at the Bureau Experimental Systems Test Force, we are charged with the development, testing, and application of both the magical and the non-magical aspects of advanced technology, ranging from unproven concept work, to reinventing the wheel, so to speak." He sat himself down in his chair.

"Unlike a lot of the," he paused, looking for the right word as not to insult Nanoha, knowing full well she'd done some testing herself. "...Unregulated testing that goes on back on the mainland, we're slated with the duty of conducting some of the more hazardous, and sometimes frighteningly dangerous tests. Safety and security are top on the list. Which makes this facility perfect for the job."

He started to type on his console, bringing up the TSAB log file on Abenobashi Air Base and the other islands in the McGreggor chain. A data review map of McGreggor appeared in place of the Maiden's images on the MSM as he did so.

"Aside from the test facility, we're also one of MidChilda's few mass weapons storage and disposal sites. Crash probably gave you a nice brief on that while you were wandering across the facility, so I won't waste my breath repeating it."

Various nods met his comment as he paused to look over his shoulder, he then continued.

"As such, the combined safety level presented for the Island Chain is such that we are permitted to conduct larger scale critical tests with a possibility for involving bystanders far lower by an order of magnitude. This pleases nearly all of the TSAB's higher level bureaucrats and that helps in keeping the facility funded... if only barely. Our funding, which tends to be an issue at least once a month with the higher ups, is actually quite good. Despite our designation as a Ground Force jurisdiction, we receive joint funding from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and even commissions from the corporate sector when we're safety testing equipment for them."

Martin pushed a button, displaying a basic overview of funding sources, showing that a considerable amount of extra funds was indeed brought in by corporate commission; where as official TSAB funding pretty much sandwiched off as barely enough to keep the facility afloat. It was a typical bureau budget chart.

"However, actual TSAB projects take precedence," he continued. "Our primary project for the last business quarter, has been the development involved with what has been designated Project Lawmaker."

"Finally," Crash muttered.

"Major Crash, shut-up, or push-up," Martin snapped without skipping a beat.

"Shutting up..." Vita smirked as she looked at Crash out of the corner of her eyes. The pilot was acting as if he was suddenly more interested in a speck of dust floating in the air.

"Before we head up to Pad One, Roland has instructed me to give you a quick brief," Martin continued. "Six Months ago, General Regius expressed moderate concern over the increased gadget drone activity that had culminated in the entire Cradle event you had participated in. Unfortunately, he was killed during that incident."

Signum, ever so slightly, fidgeted in place, but nobody noticed except Crash.

"Despite lack of funding for such a project, since his assets were focused on his Einharijar Project. He had given us the instruction to look into developing some kind of functional active countermeasure to deal with large numbers of drones at a rapid pace."

Another few button presses, and a new screen.

"Project Lawmaker, anti-drone tactical combat system. Primary purpose: To engage and destroy drone and/or cannon fodder units employed by a hostile force so that ground force mages can be freed up to do more important tasks. Emphasis was placed on individual unit cost, as well as expanding its ability to take out as many drone units as possible, preferably on its own."

"But the incident has been closed," Fate stated. "Why continue a project designed to remove threat that no longer exists?"

"A good question Enforcer," Martin used her title officially. "It has been Roland's undying doctrine that being prepared for a probable scenario, especially one that has occurred at least once, is better than the alternatives of being unprepared. That being said, Project Lawmaker continued under high classification after Regius' death. Roland is sure that seeing the obvious disadvantages in the Mage Ground forces in such a situation. He can use the project to prod the TSAB's top into adopting doctrine that allows for tools to engage dangerous hostiles sooner, faster, and from much further away. Putting fewer mages on the ground at risk to personal injury."

"So the big question is..." Hayate was putting the pieces together.

"Before we present Lawmaker to the TSAB in full," Martin nodded to her. "It needs to pass inspection from the actual mages it will be designed to assist. If we can't convince the people we're trying to help, how can we convince the paper pushers at the top that it's a good idea?"

There was a beep on his console, but Cherry beat him to it as she appeared in a small window on the MSM.

"Commander Roland requests your presence on Helipad One," she informed the group. "Commander Martin is to maintain the floor."

"Tell him we read him," Martin instructed. Cherry bowed and her window on the MSM blinked out.

"Ladies," he turned to the group. "Crash will escort you up to Helipad One, from there, you will be briefed by the commander himself."

They nodded.

"Dismissed. Crash, try not to break too much today," he paused. "I've still got a headache from Don's ranting last weak."

"I try, you know me," Crashed nodded sincerely.

"All too well," Martin seemed to rub his forehead. "Go on, get out of here."

He waved his hand in a vaguely 'shoo! shoo!' fashion, which Crash took prompt to escort the group back towards the exit of TICTOCC.

* * *

As they made their way up the hall, they picked Cooper back up as he tucked Key into his shirt. (To which she gave an audible 'EWWW, not again...') He was carrying a couple of small drink cans, and was in the process of downing one as he caught up with them. Rein noticed them and dropped back to talk with him. Cooper offered a can with a smile as they made their way to a high capacity lift at ground level. There they transported up to the top floor of the building, where they exited a rooftop door and proceeded to climb one last set of stairs.

On the roof, standing somewhere in the middle, staring around at the sky, Base Commander William Roland stood, almost dramatically in the ocean winds. Breaking the low muttering conversation of the group first was Crash as he broke into a small jog.

"So you going to tell me what this project is all about NOW?!" Crash asked in an exasperated tone. "Any more teasers and I'm going to LOOK for something to break around here..."

"And you'll most certainly find it," Roland nodded to Crash. "But have some patience, you'll see it here in a few minutes. It's better that way anyway."

He turned to the group emerging one by one from the stairs.

"Ladies, so glad you could make it on such short notice," he began, returning a series of Salutes as the girls assembled at attention close enough to talk to him. "Looks like you've all survived the tour unfazed, which is probably good for my budget assessment for the week."

"A few interesting things," Hayate commented as her own hand lowered. "A very... unique facility around here Sir."

"It has its quirks," Roland nodded. "Personally I like the climate. Every day I have off is like a vacation. Name's Roland, William Roland. Feel free to relax here, I don't find excessive formalities any good use of time. A salute's good enough."

At his words, all the girls immediately relaxed their stance.

"You've met just about everyone you need to know around here, except maybe Don," Roland continued. "I've got him over on D Complex chasing his tail with a list of maintenance issues. Had to get him away this morning somehow."

"So that's what that list was for," Crash muttered, though not exactly to himself.

"Anyway," Roland didn't even stop to entertain Crash's more than audible mutter. "You had your brief as to what you're here for correct?"

Hayate Nodded.

"We're here to evaluate the field test of Project Lawmaker. And produce, based on our experience, an accurate assessment of its functions for the Bureau Sir."

Roland furrowed his brow but smiled.

"Aww, did you copy that answer of the person in front of you?"

The aces shot Roland a unanimous glance that said 'HUH?'

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean Sir."

Roland turned to his right.

"That's a textbook answer, Lt. Col. Yagami," he waved as if trying to dismiss it. "Or perhaps we could call it Auto Pilot. I don't want to hear a regurgitation of what those Armchair Commanders back at TSAGCOM are telling you. If it helps you any, drop the SIR. In fact..."

He took two steps, reached out, and extended his hand, Hayate reached out herself, and received a firm handshake from the General.

"Now," he began again after stepping back, then backing a few paces more. "Why do you THINK you are here?"

"Uh..." Hayate was at a loss for words. "I... guess we're here to watch your field test and see if we like what you have to show us."

"There's that intelligent noggin I've read about in reports," he smiled, turning to face away from them. "Auto Pilot is for paperwork... and I don't really like paperwork. More time wasting than excessive formalities."

He turned back. Then one eye squinted, and he frowned.

"Oh dea-"

"WHEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

Crash ducked instinctively at the General's broken comment as Rein shot over his head, giggling madly as she zipped back and forth between the Aces and Test Pilots. Roland snapped into the front lean in rest and back up again as she came close to crashing into him.

"Cooper! What, did you give her?!"

"Hey she asked ME if she could have some," the engineer snapped in defense. "Don't look at me like I did something wrong!"

Fox shook her head, letting it drop. As she did so, she noticed a small silver can rolling up to her foot. Bending down to pick it up, she examined it briefly before her eyes widened.

"Cooper you gave her SHOCKLATE!?"

Cooper squirmed in her glare.

"Only a little bi-"

"YOU NIMROD!" Fox interrupted him, swinging her arm to point where Rein was doing loop-de-loops. "And you didn't think that maybe a Unison like her was a little SMALL to handle that?!"

"SMALL?! WAIT! WHO CARES?!" Rein cackled as she zipped through the group again, before getting obsessed with strands of her hair and spinning around in circles trying to catch them with her teeth until she was dizzy enough to fall right out of the air. Signum's stoic manner twitched ever so slightly towards a smile as she tried to suppress the image of a Dog.

"Uh..." Hayate began. "What is... Shocklate?"

"Chocolate Energy," Crash supplied, taking a knee to ensure the unison was okay. "It's like adding chocolate to an electrical storm."

"Sounds interesting," Nanoha interjected, then turned to Cooper. "Mind if I try some?"

"Oh, sure, I've still got a can of Rawberry here so-"

"NO!"

They all froze as Fox stormed her way over to Cooper and yanked the can right out of his hands.

"You are NOT giving this stuff to any S level mages! If it does THAT-" she motioned to Rein, who had recovered and was once more zipping in loops around Crash's head, "-to a Unison... I could only imagine what it would do to HER!" she made a rough motion to Nanoha this time.

"Probably best not to try any," Roland managed to mutter to Nanoha as Fox and Cooper argued back and forth. "That stuff's like liquid cartridge power on steroids. One can and you'd probably be able to shoot a cruiser clean out of orbit."

Nanoha managed to imagine herself firing an Arc-en-ciel for a second before looking at the bickering duo.

"Shouldn't we stop them?"

"Nah, this'll be over in a second," Crash closed his eyes.

"It's MY drink, I can give it to whomever I want! Give it back you hear?"

There was a clap as Cooper grabbed Fox's wrist to retrieve his can.

"Big mistake," Crash stated with his eyes shut.

'CRACK! WHOMP! SLAM! THUD!'

The aces all winced at the same time as they watched Fox deftly leverage her way out of Cooper's grip. Then throw his elbow into a lock with the sound of protesting joints, drive her other fist into his abdomen, and finally step in and hurl him right off her next move that rolled right from an elbow strike to a palm-thrust. Despite being twice her height, and several times her weight, she sent the overweight engineer a good four meters straight backwards in the air.

Crash opened his eyes and looked over to Fox, who was now standing in a finishing stance with her eyes closed and a very unfriendly frown on her face.

"That was a freebie," she hissed. "Touch me again and I'll ensure you go over the rail with both arms broken."

"Sure you want to tango?" Signum whispered into Vita's ear. Vita merely smirked, the girl had moves to back her attitude. And that instantly made everything else excusable.

"Sorry you had to see that," Fox apologized to the group as she spun about, giving off a serious air counter to her normal attitude. Signum appraised the momentary change in attitude. If only for a moment, she wasn't cocky. Good, that showed there was some professional discipline invoked in whatever hand to hand classes she appeared to have taken.

Roland opened his mouth to comment about not breaking his best engineer, but then closed it when he heard what sounded like another passing jet, with a slightly distinct engine noise none of the others would have noticed. Crash noticed him looking around and spoke up.

"What is it?"

Roland paused when he finally fixed where the sound was coming from.

"He's here..."

Everyone froze and looked at the General, then followed his gaze.

"That's not what I think it is.... Is it?" Fox asked.

With a near deafening roar it appeared, swooping low over the island before it came looping around the landing pad. It's arrowhead shape defining it as an aircraft. It was smooth, with rounded curves that looked too delicate for such a craft, yet at the same time, gave it a menacing, deadly elegance. Banking sharply, it near snapped to a halt in mid air, small hatches on the top and underside opening to blow downwards as it settled into a hover.

"I feel like I just got thrown into a movie," Vita muttered.

"Ladies," Roland began in a tone audible over the vehicle's roaring thrust. "Allow me to introduce Project Lawmaker, the answer to any future problems concerning quantity over quality."

The vehicle settled down, gently dropping onto its deployed landing gear with painstaking precision just two meters behind the General. And then powered down, it's roar cutting back to a whine before dying out.

"This," Roland continued with a flourish. "Is the Magical Autonomous Drone, Combat Assault Platform. The MADCAP. "

"STEALTH!" Fox snapped her fingers. Everyone turned to her suddenly. "It's like we're living in a movie! Cooper was watching that movie every night for a month straight!"

Vita got the next word in.

"So your concept of anti-drone combat strategy... is another drone," she sighed. "And one based on a fictional design."

"When in Rome," Signum began.

"Yes, and no," Roland smirked. "The gadget drones were, quite frankly, stupid, remote controlled cannon fodder. With all the predictable features that comes with them."

"It better be as smart as the one in the movie if it's going to do any good," Vita was starting to get extremely sarcastic.

To her remark, the General grinned, and that made Crash's mind click.

"My god, you mean Cooper..."

AI expert, Aircraft... Apparently nobody else was making the connection. Not even Fox. Crash simply blinked, then started to grin as the pieces finally slid into place. He started to laugh at the simplicity of it all, getting worried glances from the aces.

"About time I got the respect I deserve," Cooper huffed, rotating his arm as he made his way past the group. "I spent over eight-hundred hours on this part..." He walked up to the MADCAP and stopped short, and cleared his throat.

"Good morning EDI."

"Good morning Cooper," the aircraft's electronic voice resonated back in a deep, soothing tone. Vita and Fox froze stock still in place, the other aces didn't hold nearly as much shock. Nanoha was smiling herself.

"It's an Intelligent Device," she concluded.

"Close," Cooper turned around. "This, is many times more autonomous, the Enhanced, Device, Intelligence. EDI for short."

"My god," Fox turned to Vita. "He even managed to give it the same name without making the acronym sound stupid. Even the same VOICE... We really have been dragged into a movie. Did we do a dimensional transit while I wasn't looking?"

"Somebody, shoot me now," Vita returned.

"That could be arranged if you feel it necessary," EDI resonated. There was a click and two slots opened near the top on each side.

"Let's not and say we did," Cooper interjected before the fireworks could begin with him in the same area. "EDI, Weapons SAFE."

"Affirmative," the aircraft responded. There was a click as the two slots they had seen shut themselves.

"The idea is to fight drones," Roland continued his showmanship. "But to fight them with a drone that makes them look like cheap imitations. EDI has the same advanced A-I-Two system the Maidens downstairs have. Only oriented with less personality, and more combat skill. He- Yes, it's a he, runs on an internal magic generator, and uses Magical Ignition Sequence Supersonic Combustion Ramjet Engines, or MISSCRAMJETs, as propulsion. A hybrid engine using conventional thrust with magic as its fuel."

"For tactical purposes," EDI toned in, "I'm equipped with twin Cerberus II class gattling cannons that rate class B energy delivery per round during maximum rate of fire. My internal bay can be loaded with up to eight mission specific modules ranging from duplicates of device functions such as the buster system, to onboard advanced electronic warfare suites. I am capable of sustained Mach Four velocity, and a dash speed to hypersonic at Mach Five, with sustained hypersonic ability at alitude."

Fate and Nanoha shared a glance.

"There's also a stealth coating," Cooper smiled. "EDI's pretty much invisible to conventional sensors, and difficult to detect on modern TSAB equipment, it would take an orbiting cruiser to paint a good fix on him."

"What about... going on a near homicidal rampage across MidChilda?" Vita took a stab.

"Eh?" Cooper asked.

"Remember what happened in the movie?"

Cooper had one of those 'Smartest Idiot' moments, looking at the short knight was a completely blank look. Under his shirt, Key duplicated a sigh.

"The Lightning Strike," she supplied.

"OH!" Cooper smacked his fist in his palm. "No worries! I spent two hundred hours on that ALONE! EDI's got a full suite of philosophical and moral judgement to fall back upon. No misunderstanding rogue fighter planes around here!"

"I am fully aware of the flaws my fictional counterpart had," EDI resonated. "I can assure you I will not be causing any situations which I would willingly endanger innocents."

Hayate looked at Vita, who looked at Fox, then at Signum before they each exchanged glances with the rest of the people assembled. There seemed to be a silent confirmation before they all looked expectantly at Roland.

"Good enough for you?" he asked.

Vita shrugged. "Works for me."

"Good," he nodded. "Now, about this field test..."

He turned to Crash.

"What have you got for me?" the pilot asked.

"Well, I was thinking, the standard course, two hundred point checklist, performance envelope evaluations... Stress tests..."

Cooper watched as the General continued to count off the various field test protocols, took one glance at the group, and then interrupted.

"Hey, hold up!"

He walked up to Roland's side and spoke in a hushed tone with him. They conversed quietly for several seconds, occasionally gesturing towards the guest aces as they did so, looking up twice before finishing with a nod to each other.

"On second thought," Roland stated. "A new plan. How about a combat test instead? Two Aces VS Madcap Mock Battle? If you ladies don't mind of course," he motioned to Fate and Nanoha.

"Hah!" Crash couldn't help but voice his thought. "Funny. No offense to Cooper's engineering skill, but how is EDI going to stand a chance against the TSAB's Aces of Aces? Seems a little unfair if you ask me."

"Of course, which is why you'll be helping EDI," Roland stated.

"Ah," Crash nodded. That seemed like a logical way to- ... Wait a minute.

"OBJECTION!!!"

Everyone jumped as Crash nearly shouted.

"And just where was I in this decision making process? Me? Fight an ACE? You've got to be KIDDING!"

"You can handle it," Roland stated, shaking his head. "It's not like we're having a real life or death battle. It'll be a timed mock battle, survival in your favor."

"In my favor?" Crash asked. "I'm not exactly combat trained, and you want to put me up against combat ACES?"

"Actually, it's my idea," Cooper stated. "I did a serious overhaul of your device and armor system, I want to see how the modifications perform."

"Won't be much of a test if I get creamed in the first two minutes," Crash snapped. Roland shook his head.

"You lasted eight minutes at six to one odds against the infamous NUMBERS combat cyborgs," Roland took the same stab that Fox had at breakfast, and dragged that sentence out loud and clear. He silently cursed the General bringing that point up as all of their guests looked straight at him with extreme scrutiny they hadn't been using up to that point. "If you can last eight minutes in a six-to-one scenario against the likes of them when they had all the cards, you should be able to manage okay in a two-on-two mock battle."

"That was pure luck I lasted that long," Crash argued, he was getting annoyed at the look of sympathy coming from Nanoha.

"NONSENSE," Roland stated in his most authoritative tone. "Luck had nothing to do with that fight, it was a combination of good armor engineering, and your own potential that kept you alive until support arrived. And you KNOW it."

Fox suddenly cut in, changing the tone of the conversation.

"You're not SCARED are you," she asked. Damn that devilish smirk she was using.

"Scared?!" Crash asked her. Actually… Yes. But his pride wouldn't let him say that though. "I'm not scared!"

To Nanoha, it was like watching two children argue. And reminded her of earlier times. Oh god, she wasn't even into her mid twenties and already nostalgia?

"Then why don't you accept the challenge then?" Fox asked. "It's perfectly alright if you're scared. Fear is the body's way of telling you what you're doing is pretty STUPID after all. But you're an idiot, so you should be immune to fear by this point."

Fate was more inclined to note how the girl was baiting Crash, but still making fun of him and taking stabs at him throughout. If this kept up, the end result was certain.

"Maybe because I know a worthless cause when I see one," he responded.

Vita knew a fail argument when she heard one. After all, she'd spent the better part of several months-living one. Fox wasn't going to let him get away with it, certainly.

"So you're a worthless cause now eh?" she sniped.

Ohhh... a blow to pride was one thing Signum definitely recognized when she heard it.

"I didn't say that!"

Hayate, having had to argue with hundreds of people to get her Riot Force Six unit set up, knew Fox had Crash cornered and on the ropes, all it needed would be a coup-de-gras to finish him.

"Sure sounded like it to me," Fox shrugged. "Crash is a Worthless Cause and can't so much as challenge an Ace."

"I am NOT a worthless cause!" Crash shot back.

"PROVE IT!" Fox snapped.

"You know what?" Crash asked. "I WILL!"

He spun around to Roland.

"Challenge Accepted!"

Behind his back, Fox smiled and gave the General a knowing wink.

"It's settled then," Cooper took the initiative before Crash's brain could catch up with him enough to retract his statement. "I need you to go ahead and Set Up so I can explain a few things."

Crash looked over at the engineer.

"What, NOW?" he asked.

"Unless you can think of a better time," Cooper shrugged. "Tomorrow, next year... Yes NOW!"

Crash shrugged.

"Ohhh... kay. Battery, status."

[PRIMED]

The deep authoritative tone boomed from the dog tags that were around his neck.

"Here goes nothing," Crash began. "Engage."

[ENGAGING]

'CRACK!'

There was a flash of light as the device came online, initiating the standard barrier-jacket formation sequence. When it cleared, just about everyone took an involuntary step backwards. In place of Crash was... well. The best description was a six-foot tall, metal clad robotic line backer. From head to toe, armor, armor, and more armor. It was a dull looking matte gray color, and for barrier jackets, it wasn't exactly eye-catching. But it had a certain air of menace to it just by standing there. It had to be the shoulder pads. At least, that was Nanoha's thought.

"Something's different," Crash's voice came with a filtered sound from the helmet. "I haven't actually done this in about a month and a half, what's different?"

That voice, Nanoha recognized it... where?

"I've modified the armor chassis from the prototype," Cooper stated, walking up to crash. "Improved motion tracking dynamics should make it feel more natural to move than before. I've also dumped the active reconfiguration mechanism for the different armor variations. No more specialized air superiority mode on the fly, and no more ultra-heavy artillery modes for the Multiform Rifle. While the versatility was pretty good, it was too much extra weight and was straining the system. Instead, I've optimized the intermediate mode, added some new features, and made extended mission modes into a modular arrangement."

"What kind of features," Crash asked. That filtered voice was REALLY bugging Nanoha.

"Well," Cooper started counting on his hands. "The Heads Up Display now has improved auto-tracking features and display modes for environmental conditions, such as digital terrain overlay during night-time or limited visibility operations, even full infrared. I improved the power to mass ratio by optimizing the actuators, and I installed a specialized energy management system called the Mobility, Attack, Defense, Active Management System, or MAD Active Management System."

"Don't devices already do that kind of thing?" Signum asked. "It seems redundant."

"Yes and no." Cooper turned to the girls. "Active Mana Management is usually done on mental instruction and concentration efforts of the mage, and relayed through the device. The MADAM, pardon the term, provides hyper-fast, automated management of mana to three areas in the blink of an eye in ways not even natural instincts can recall. It will allow the mage using them to direct ALL of their energy to a specific area, exactly when it's needed, rather than trying to compensate for rather slow human mental processing speed by dividing it. I've made it split from the Device AI as an active subsystem that can be turned on and off so that it doesn't become a handicap if there's a malfunction. When active however, it frees up a mage's concentration by doing this task for them, allowing them to worry more about what they're actually doing in combat."

"What about that Armor?" Vita asked. "Don't barrier jackets and standard defenses work well enough?"

Cooper examined Vita with an inquisitive eye, the girl was known for smashing down defenses.

"This is an Olympian Powered Armor Exoskeleton," he stated. "It has all the standard defense measures of a barrier jacket, but also solid armor made of reinforced tungsten carbide and titanium alloy. If an enemy is strong enough to break through a barrier, a shield, and the barrier jacket standard defensive response, he'd still have to deal with two centimeters of solid armor plating if it were a chest shot. The best part is that it's magic forged, so it's triple density thanks to the precision in which the molecules could be laid out. I rechecked it twelve times to be sure... these plates are FLAWLESS. No cracks, no fatigue, no stress weak points. I LOVE Magic Forged Steel."

"Isn't such a suit extremely heavy?" Shamal asked.

"Very much so," Cooper nodded. "But I accounted for it." He slapped one of the large shoulder pads. "Passive Anti-grav." He slapped the lower back. "Active flight enhancement Grav-Drive. Just like cruisers, but smaller and less powerful. The mage wearing still has to use flight magic, but at least the armor weight is mostly nullified."

He then took one step back.

"For all intents and purposes, the exoskeleton turns him into a tank. The physical strength of a combat cyborg, without having to replace half his organic body parts to do it."

"Anything else you changed?" Crash asked.

"No, you're pretty much the same aside from what I said..." Cooper informed him.

"AH!"

They looked at Nanoha.

"Now I remember!" she smiled. "Just after the auction, you were under attack while trapped in a communications jamming barrier over the ocean."

Inside his helmet, Crash furrowed his brow.

"How do you... wait... What's you're call sign?"

"Stars One," she smiled.

"Lightning One," Fate added her own call sign, remembering exactly what Nanoha was talking about.

Crash visibly slumped.

"Great..." he mumbled. Unfortunately for him, it came out filtered and clear. "I'm fighting the people who saved my ass by beating the people who could kick my ass... It was nice knowing me."

"Don't worry about it," Shamal smiled as she walked up and patted the helmet he was wearing a few times. "If they accidentally hurt you I'll be sure and take good care of you."

Crash slumped more than before. He couldn't decide if entertaining the thought of the pretty blond doctor taking care of him was a nice fantasy, or suicidal. This thought was even more difficult because he couldn't figure out if Shamal hadn't just done that to mess with him. Recalling who managed to talk him into this, he looked over at Fox.

"For the record, you're a demon."

Fox smiled a not so innocent grin.


	4. Chapter 4: Ace is Wild

****

12:15 PM

Two-Hundred Kilometers Northwest of Sand Island (McGreggor G Complex)

Five Thousand Feet Above Sea Level

Naval Weather Conditions, Scattered Cloud Cover

"GEOFRONT to Banshee group," Commander Roland's voice crackled over the long-range communications link bounced from MIDSAT B to all parties now in the air.

"Listen up. Here's the Test Scenario you are about to engage in. At eleven hundred hours and forty-five minutes, TSAGCOM put out a first level alert for a pair of rogue mages who had recently attacked one of the other three disposal facilities on the planet. They were after specific pieces of weapons equipment but were unable to find it and blasted their way out, injuring many and causing extensive damage before backup could arrive.

They were detected entering McGreggor's monitoring space by AWACS THUNDERHEAD at Eleven-Fifty-Five and instructed to turn away. Thunderhead was engaged and shot down at Eleven Fifty Seven, just two minutes after contact. The hostile targets are being tracked on a southeastern heading directly towards the Archipelago. It is assumed they are after the materials kept in the high security bunkers, and will stop at nothing to get at them. TSAGCOM ordered priority defense of the bunkers at all costs, and thus I have authorized lethal force."

He paused, making sure there were no questions, then continued his scripted scenario.

"Of the air defense squadrons on hand, only four fighters from Yellow squadron are airborne at the time of contact, and the remaining pilots of Yellow and Mouse won't be airborne for at least another ten, perhaps twenty. Not wanting to risk odds against powerful mages at a mere two to one ratio, I've ordered the squadron to maintain an orbit around the Air Base until they are either engaged, or fully airborne.

However, I trust that a moderately capable mage in heavy combat armor and the high capability aircraft that the advanced MADCAP is will be able to delay the opponents, and have ordered you to intercept at discretion."

He paused again, motioning for the MSM to go active. It displayed a MIDSAT status monitor of Nanoha and Fate on the right, Crash and EDI on the left, with the tactical monitor in the middle.

"Thusly, your objective is to engage the opposing team, with an objective to attack at will, and attempt to neutralize the threat. If you are unable to do so, merely surviving the remaining ten minutes until Yellow and Mouse can have overwhelming numeric superiority over the opponents is a secondary objective. You deployed as an advanced screen and are approaching the two hundred-kilometer marker distance when you received the Weapons Loose order to engage and intercept. You must engage and remain engaged or your defense screen will be bypassed and you lose by default, so remember that. Countdown ten minutes starts now, GEOFRONT out."

"Okay," Crash began the moment the channel closed. "I'm sure I don't have to say this twice to something that operates with a quantum processor core, so I'll make it quick. We've got two opponents who are top of the line TSAB Aces ahead, and they'll be going for a knockout victory on their part from the moment we make contact."

"Affirmative," EDI's voice resonated. "In the case of our engagement, it would be wise to maximize our potential energy and engage the targets from a superior angle of attack."

"If you mean go to high altitude, I agree," Crash nodded. At only five thousand feet, they were level with Nanoha and Fate and only closing one click at a time. But he had no time to think about the problems, if it was anything he was good at, it was breaking things. His mind started to race as he tried to think about what could potentially 'break' with a human mage. Battery suddenly snapped a warning.

[CONTACTS, COUNTING TWO, ANGELS SEVEN, SEVENTY KILOMETERS, ELEVON-O-CLOCK ON THE NOSE. MAGICAL SIGNATURE MATCHES TARGET, BANDITS CONFIRMED]

"Okay," Crash snapped, forming a plan. "First things first, disorient, THEN 'kill', you savvy?"

"That is an appropriate combat tactic," EDI responded. "Bandits designation STARS and LIGHTNING do not seem to be aware of our location at this time, a suitable strategy would be an ambush."

"Easier for you than me," Crash grumbled. "You're stealthy, I'm a flying BRICK. Wait... What was your top speed again?" And idea was forming in his head.

"MACH FIVE Dash speed," EDI resonated in response. "Do you have a strategy in mind?"

"Something like that," Crash smiled. "A little game of misdirection in fact, tell me what you think about this..."

* * *

About sixty-five kilometers northwest of their position, Nanoha and Fate checked the skies around them.

"Nothing yet," Nanoha noted, glancing at a cloudbank they were near. She was coasting a little slower than normal, giving the defending side a bit of a head start, just to be nice about things. Crash's reaction was the same as some recruits against her when she announced the first full-scale mock battle. She didn't really like to intimidate those who weren't exactly feeling good about fighting her. As the engagement rules went, they were to 'eliminate' the two via any functional means, but they were informed to keep the power levels balanced and rely on skill over brute force.

[SIR, DETECTING HIGH MASS CONTACT APPROACHING FROM HIGH ALTITUDE]

Bardiche was on the ball today; Nanoha and Fate quickly readied their devices as they heard a low sonic boom emit from the high cirrus clouds above them.

* * *

Crash came out of super-cruise at ten thousand feet, noting the two aces were close together still a good three thousand feet below. He ferried his device to rifle mode and took aim.

"Tally Ho! I have them... Both of them at angels seven... Engaging hostiles," he informed. "Situation is as expected."

He fired, the magic bolt launcher kicked slightly as the device fired a single blue-white magic round. He fired again a moment later, and began placing single shots down at his two targets.

* * *

Nanoha and fate were far enough away, that the incoming rounds easily got warnings from Bardiche and Raising Heart. Nanoha raised her barrier immediately; deflecting the first few shots before the accuracy started to suffer. The little bolts had very little power in them, and barely registered as a threat to the white finish on her barrier jacket.

"Distraction," she warned. Fate nodded and started looking around as she continued. "Raising Heart?"

[THERE IS ONLY ONE OPPONENT DETECTED]

"I think the other is going to use a heavier attack," Fate stated, then took that as her cue to swing around behind Nanoha, looking around the open skies for any signs of hostility, holding the Axe-like head of Bardiche in front of her defensively.

[NO HIGH-POWER SOURCES DETECTED SIR]

"Stealth," Nanoha reminded Fate, still blocking the bolts in case a stronger shot got mixed in. Fate nodded, and turned, but just before she would have missed it, she noticed a glint of sunlight out of the corner of her eye, and spun, shouting a warning to Nanoha as she directed a defense barrier and prepared to counter-attack.

EDI was already right on top of them by the time she had both eyes on him. The MADCAP frame tore right into their position with only a few meters separation at full Mach Five. The sonic boom slammed into them immediately, thundering against Fate's barrier and shocking Nanoha, who still had her back turned to the approach and hadn't even had time to react to Fate's lightning fast warning. After a moment, they both realized the only thing they could hear was their own heartbeat and an annoying ringing sound. That was a wakeup call.

* * *

EDI was already over three kilometers away and bleeding off speed by the time Fate turned to his departure angle.

"I have buzzed the targets," he informed. "Beginning engagement procedure."

"Roger that," Crash snapped, dropping into a dive. "They got barriers up, so your run didn't knock them out of the sky like we wanted."

"Their temporary Tinnitus should last perhaps a minute," EDI toned. "I advise we hit as hard as we can now, since we won't have a second opportunity."

"Already in a dive," Crash informed the AI. "I'm going to engage unit LIGHTNING, she's specialized more for close combat, so I should stand a better chance in my heavy armor than your airframe. You take STARS unit."

"Affirmative," EDI responded.

Crash was almost on them, the switching to full auto, he quickly took aim, EDI bled off the last of his speed in a high G turn no organic life form could have managed and came around hard.

"Here they come!" Fate shouted.

"WHAT?!" Nanoha shouted back. Hearing loss was a pain...

'Here they come!' Fate responded again, this time psychicly.

'Oh,' was Nanoha's mental reply.

EDI and Crash opened up at once, unleashing streams of moderately effective magical bolts.

[SONIC MOVE!]

[FLASH MOVE!]

Nanoha and Fate bolted in opposite directions just before the stream of attacks hit. EDI immediately calculated trajectory and chased after the pink contrail. Crash managed to keep his eyes on the yellow contrail left by Fate's departure and tracked his weapon along her trajectory, but she quickly outpaced his ability to lead her movement.

"You're not getting away," Crash muttered to himself. Battery redirected energy to speed and he accelerated, thundering up close to supersonic as he chased after his target Ace.

Nanoha came through a cloud in a dive, bolting through several thousand feet as she evaded fire from behind. EDI had locked on, and engaged in twin rotary cannon fire, sending quick bursts of orange magic at her, with a snap turn, she evaded, but the super-fast calculations of the AI controlled aircraft weren't as predictably easy to fool compared to the drones Jail had used.

Going fully evasive, she dove straight down towards the water, EDI following in her high-speed dive.

They broke the sound barrier as she dove. Inertia meant she would be able to stop sooner in a little game of ocean chicken than the drone chasing her.

EDI calculated that among many possible end results of the dive, and decided not to let her get that position. His underside internal bay snapped open and the rotary rack spun into position, and deployed a weapon mechanism. In two seconds it formed an orb of orange magic on the forward end.

"HORNETS NEST," he droned.

'BAM!'

[MASTER!]

Nanoha barely heard Raising Heart over the ringing in her ears, but the shout of warning was enough. With a fast glance over her shoulder, she spotted eight fast moving orange streaks diving at her in a corkscrew as EDI pulled out of his dive.

Nanoha, in her surprise, almost forgot the water below her, but instantly came up with a counter move. Pulling out of her dive to skirt the water close enough to send a jet of spray into the air, she shot parallel to the waves at high speed, throwing up a barrier behind her as the orange shots arced to follow her path. Three of them arced too shallow and exploded against the water in towers of spray, the remaining five slammed into her barrier with a little more force than she expected from an unmanned magic vehicle. Above, and still slightly behind, EDI prepared a second volley, intending to knock her into the drink.

Thinking fast, Nanoha deployed a barrier directly into the water, creating drag, and slowing her down rapidly enough to cause EDI to overshoot. Nanoha brought Raising Heart to bear and launched her counter attack.

[AXCEL SHOOTER]

In her opinion, THIS was how you did multi-shot attacks

"SHOOOOOOT!"

'BAM!'

Sixteen pink streaks blasted from Raising Heart into the sky.

Calculating the trajectory of the shots, EDI immediately pulled back, and began to roll, corkscrewing through the air in a loose, high speed, barrel roll. Her shots missed and began to twirl in an attempt to hit the MADCAP. Nanoha's excellent control of them meant that even this evasion would fail eventually, but EDI accounted for that. As the first one managed score home, it smacked against a barrier that flickered up just long enough to deflect it. EDI broke his corkscrew and came around hard, losing most of Nanoha's shots again while a second one scored. Gunning the engine power, he accelerated directly at the stationary mage, unleashing another firestorm of magical energy from the twin Cerberus IIs.

'SNAP!'

[BUSTER MODE, DRIVE IGNITION]

Raising Heart discharged a cartridge as Nanoha took aim at her target, her barrier shimmering from the hundreds of weak magical bolts that pelted it.

"DIVIIIINE..."

But then she noticed EDI's internal bay was open again and the rotary rack deployed. There was a brief glow and suddenly an orange beam lashed out at her. Perhaps a low powered buster of his own.

[FLASH MOVE!]

Raising Heart got her out of the way as it tore past her, and she quickly retrained her staff to attack...

Then EDI broke off, and she realized there were still a good fourteen bolts from her Divine Shooter attack chasing him, and now they were coming right at her... Clever decoy tactics, but Nanoha had absolute control of them, and they broke their chase and traveled right around her before she willed them away.

Coming about as the Drone Hunter thundered past her, she brought Raising Heart to bear again, getting a reassuring pink glow as she began to prepare her specialty once more. Bands of magical markings appeared at the end as she steadied her aim to take down her target.

"Deploying Iron Curtain," EDI droned in acknowledgement of the magical energy spike he detected.

'CRACK!'

Nanoha paused from her shot to assess this new threat. A single red orb had just launched from EDI's upper midsection. Why was it so familiar?

'CRACK!'

One became two.

'CRACK!'

Two became four.

Then she remembered. It looked just like-

'BOOM!!!'

With a roar and a blinding flash of light, Nanoha's chance of tagging EDI with her Divine Buster evaporated instantly.

* * *

"Wait, that's MY technique!" Vita shouted. She practically would have pounced on the MSM display showing EDI rocketing for the upper atmosphere with Graf Eisen, if Signum hadn't managed to clamp a hand down on her fellow knight.

"It may have been your technique," Cooper stated from his own chair. "But I IMPROVED IT!"

"As if..." Key sniped, but Cooper kept going.

"The new version there is called the Iron Curtain, producing an order of magnitude more light and turbulence for the same amount of magic, making it more effective at blinding the opponent for a longer period of time over a wider field of view."

"And what's with that corny name?" Vita glowered at the chubby engineer.

"Because in Soviet Russia," Roland interjected, balling his fist. "Spells name YOU!"

Everyone in the room, including the Maidens virtual representations, simply glanced dumbfounded at the Major General. Tough audience tonight. He glanced at Fox, who silently rolled her eyes before he waved it away.

"Earth Joke."

* * *

Nanoha blinked away the tears that had formed in her eyes in response to the temporary flash blindness. The ringing in her ears had redoubled in intensity from the roar, and she could feel the magic boost from her cartridge already dropping away, completely wasted. This battle may just turn out to be quite fun.

'Fate,' she broadcasted telepathically. 'Keep your eye out for EDI, he can launch Vita's Iron Howl, and it splits up.'

'Where is he now?' Fate broadcasted back.

'I lost him for the moment,' Nanoha responded. 'I think he was heading up. How are you doing?'

'Crash isn't half bad actually,' came the response. 'Sloppy, but fast reflexes.'

Nanoha took a look around, but didn't see anything moving in immediate sight, but kept up her scanning.

'What kind of attack methods is he using?'

'High velocity projectile,' came the telepathic response. 'Accurate, but weaker.'

'Okay so that-'

Nanoha felt it as Raising Heart delivered a warning.

[MASTER!]

She leaned in and shot forward as a orange beam twice as wide around as she was tall slammed into the waves from above her, blasting a column of water a hundred meters into the air.

'Nanoha?'

Putting on as much speed as she could, she managed to clear the attack as it was followed up with another cluster of eight orange streaks.

'Nanoha?!' Fate's telepathic broadcast was slightly more urgent.

'I'm still in the game,' she responded. 'EDI just tried to snipe me with a full power buster.'

'At what range?'

'I couldn't tell.'

'That far away?' Fate seemed pleased. Nanoha looked off to her left as the telltale thump of a sonic boom gave away EDI's position. She could see a glint of sunlight off something moving through the cirrus clouds at ten thousand feet, and immediately took off after it.

'I'm re-engaging the MADCAP,' Nanoha broadcasted.

'Roger,' Fate returned.

* * *

Crash wasn't having it quite as easy as EDI had. After catching up with Fate, she'd quickly counter-attacked him as he attempted to tag her with a shot. Nearly catching him in the face with a Thunder Smasher attack. This then quickly devolved into a circling snipe-fest as they raced back and forth around one of the cumulonimbus clouds that had been left behind the front earlier that day.

Crash himself was running on adrenaline and near panic mode. After his initial attack was counter-acted, Fate's near miss retaliation quickly killed his confidence in his battle plan. All he could think of now was to keep moving, shoot back, and try to come up with something.

Fate snapped off to the side as one of his bolts raced past. Her defenses weren't the same as Nanoha's and she didn't want to waste her energy on guarding. Actually, her main problem was that after getting hit by that concussion, she was having slight trouble maintaining her equilibrium. Something she considered very important in an air battle. Momentary dizzy spells kept following her fast orientations as she went from right side up, to upside down, and then down into dives before leaping into snap climbs. It wasn't quite dangerous, but it was annoying, and she was tempted to say her close combat might be affected. But this was getting them nowhere, and she needed to get in close for a good hit.

Roaring up over the top of the cloud, spinning, and firing a few random shots at the ace, Crash was not privy to this small insight, just trying to keep his distance from the close combat expert while he tried to pick her off... But the rounds were just too weak to be effective as she either dodged, or used Bardiche to deflect them to the sides. He needed to buy time, and get a chance to come up with something.

"This is getting us nowhere," he muttered. "Battery? Got any ideas?"

[INITIALIZING M.A.D. ACTIVE MANAGEMENT]

"The MADAM?" he asked, then fired another round at the distant form of Fate as he ducked behind the cloud to hide. "Worth a shot at least."

On his Heads Up Display, a new indicator graph appeared in the lower left-hand corner. Showing Three lines labeled M, A, and D. Standing for Mobility, Attack, and Defense.

[ROUTING MAGIC ENERGY MANAGEMENT TO MADAM]

The lines shifted, once equal, suddenly A and D shifted to M. Crash felt the sudden rush, as if he could move faster.

At that moment, Fate broke through the cloud, racing at him with Bardiche swung back to strike.

"Held still too long!" he berated himself, and dove straight down. He immediately noted that it felt as if he had just pushed straight off a solid object.

[BE ADVISED, ATTACK AND DEFENSE NOT EFFECTIVE WHEN MOBILITY IS PEAK, A TRADE OFF WILL BE REQUIRED]

"Okay!" he retorted to the warning. "Mark the bandit!"

[AFFIRMATIVE]

Fate Dove after Crash as he shot towards the water some twenty thousand feet below. He began to aggressively weave in an attempt to throw her off as she started to close the gap.

"Welcome to the 'Crash Course' in Air Combat Maneuvering!" Crash caught himself growling as he watched the indicator marker count off distance in the corner of his HUD. In the stress of the moment, he had fallen to his habit mouthing off sarcastic remarks to anyone who could hear it. Even if it was only himself. "Now you too can have the experience of running for your life as an Ace mage uses you for target practice!"

And then he pulled back, swinging himself out of his dive. The Marker indicating fate's position suddenly began losing digits at a frightening rate, turning red as she closed to Melee range.

Fate swung back with Bardiche, whatever crash was planning, she wasn't going to let him finish.

Crash jumped. Or if he'd been standing on a solid surface, he would have jumped. Instead, the properties of open air meant he simply went through a jumping motion and came to a complete stop in mid air, neutral Gs making it feel like he was weightless for just a few moments as he leaned back, tightening his grip on the Multiform Rifle.

Sensing the shift in his muscle tension, Battery relayed a message to the MADAM subsystem, which reacted in a millisecond. Crash felt the sudden loss of that movement feeling, but at the same time, suddenly felt like he could blow something up. He reached an inverted position even as Bardiche barely missed nicking off his faceplate. Fate kept her momentum and shot past him, spinning around to face him as she did so. Crash continued on through another flip until he was facing directly down at her again. This time the rifle tucked into his shoulder.

'CRACK!'

Crash's aim wasn't exactly stellar... but the point still came across as the bolt of magical energy grazed one of her black hair ties. If her eyes hadn't just deceived her. The shot was at least three times thicker than the weak bolts he'd been firing from that device. She responded in kind with Bardiche. The Axe-like head glowing as she took aim.

[PLASMA LANCER]

A bolt of superheated electrical plasma arced upwards as Crash returned to the normal upright position. At the same moment, Crash felt the MADAM shift from attack, to defense, and battery barked its own response.

[WEDGE SHIELD]

Without any energy for flying, he started to drop, even as an oddly shaped barrier interposed itself between him and the incoming magical attack. The high-energy magic bolt struck, but thanks to the very shallow angle of the shield, deflected off on an oblique trajectory further into the sky where it exploded harmlessly.

The MADAM shifted Crash back to mobility level, returning flight to him as he immediately started climbing again.

[HAKKEN FORM]

Bardiche's head rocked back as the revolver mechanism at its base rotated and snapped into a cartridge with a puff of smoke, and ignited a scythe made of plasma energy.

[WARNING! CARTRIDGE IMPULSE DETECTED AT SIX-O-CLOCK!]

Crash broke his ascent and banked hard right as the marker indicating Fate's position blinked yellow on his HUD.

"NOW WHAT?!"

Fate came to a halt in mid air, shaking off the slowly decreasing dizzy spells and swung back hard with Bardiche.

"HAKKEN SABER!"

And she swung the device all the way around, hurling the plasma arc right off the end so that it would intercept Crash's flight path.

[!!!DANGER!!! HOSTILE LAUNCH DETECTED!!!]

"OH! SHIT!" Crash's eyes snapped wide and he spun in mid air. The only time Battery was supposed to give a verbal launch warning like that was for attacks that would beat its estimated defense level. The Heads Up Display immediately bracketed the incoming boomerang of plasma in red and an ETA marker.

[BLITZ RUSH]

Crash shifted to the side to let the attack whip by, but its slow pace immediately screamed foul in his mind. About the same time Battery screamed its own thoughts.

[DECOY! TAKE EVAISIVE ACTION!]

Crash searched his HUD for Fate's marker and looked up, finding she was now above him, arms high over her head for a killing strike. He immediately kicked himself for hesitating.

[HAKKEN SLASH!]

Fate came hurling down at him, shouting a battle cry. Crash didn't have any position advantage of his own. And no time to change momentum. No time to create a strong enough defense, or launch counter-offense. And he panicked.

"DUMP AND JUMP!"

[HOWLER FLARES!]

'POPOPOPOP! POPOPOPOP!'

Sixteen small red orbs were ejected into the air, at the same time, Crash felt the surge of energy as Battery snapped a cartridge. Fate began her swing, almost on Crash.

[MACH STRAFE!]

'THUM-BOOM!!!'

Fate was taken totally by surprise as she over swung right into empty air and flipped once before righting herself. Crash had simply appeared to fold right in on himself and vanish in a flash. The loud concussion it gave off didn't help things. However, just as she registered this fact, the small orb cloud she'd ended up in the midst of detonated in a tumult of small blinding flashes and loud bangs This of course, complicating her hearing problems once more as she grabbed her head in pain.

* * *

Cracking back into reality some five-hundred meters away and above, Crash quickly looked around to ensure he was clear as Battery discharged the spent cartridge it had used to extend the hop. He needed to change the battlefield to his advantage. Spying a little bit of whitish tan off to the southeast. He realized they had carried a considerable distance towards Sand Island. He could get some footing there, and apply more power if he didn't have to fly. Quickly turning and diving into a cloud before he could be seen, he shot away from Fate, accelerating to MACH two as he did so.

Fate shook off the disorienting effects of being caught right in the middle of that cloud of noise. It was slightly irritating to have such a perfect strike completely and totally evaded like that. She quickly scanned her surroundings, but found herself alone.

[SIR! OPPONENT FLEEING SOUTHEAST AT CONSIDERABLE VELOCITY!]

Bardiche warned her repeatedly. But the only thing Fate could really hear, was the repeated thumping of her heartbeat, and a hollow ringing sound made worse by the flares.

[SIR? SIR!? SHOULD WE NOT PERSUE THE TARGET? SIR!? AKNOWLEDGE!]

But Bardiche's urgent, and repetitive inquiry however, fell upon deaf ears. Literally…

* * *

'Nanoha, I've lost sight of Crash.'

Nanoha picked up fate's psychic transmission as she pursued EDI at extreme high altitude.

'Roger, I'm still chasing EDI... Keep your eyes peeled.'

'Will do, I just wish I could hear better. He got me with flares.'

'You too?'

'Seems to be a popular favorite around here.'

Nanoha smiled, and then shivered.

EDI had opted to see the endurance limits of Nanoha's body, and had gone well above the marked Death Zone altitude for MidChilda. It was cold, and at... Raising Heart had counted off, sixty-four thousand, seven hundred and forty-eight feet. The air was very thin.

In fact, EDI had checked the exact numbers. It was negative seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and the air pressure was zero-point-eight-two-five pounds per square inch. A fractional one EIGHTEENTH that of the surface.

Luckily, Nanoha's barrier jacket kept a field of air around her body at a more comfortable pressure and temperature, but she could still feel the chill eating away at it constantly. However, despite this, she had to keep moving forward. Magical as it was, the barrier wasn't manufacturing air for her, so she had to constantly 'scoop' oxygen out of the thin air by flying through it. That wasn't too much of a problem YET however since EDI was flying some distance in front of her at high speed.

Even still, her breathing rate had nearly tripled from the struggle to get oxygen.

EDI was maintaining his own careful high altitude balance. Though he didn't need oxygen to function like Nanoha, he needed enough air to give his wings lift, and his magical engines thrust. And that meant more power to the engines to keep his speed up to scoop that air for thrust. It also meant his maneuverability was degraded by having less action on his control surfaces.

Determined not to be shown up by the Drone Hunter, Nanoha didn't back down from the challenge. She kept pace with the craft as it banked and weaved so far above the clouds, that the sky above was twinkling with stars in broad daylight. She had noticed after a while, that EDI's turns and weaves weren't as tight as they should be...

Logging Nanoha's reduced aggressive state, EDI decided to check in on his Wingman.

"What is your status BANSHEE ONE?" EDI resonated over his communications link. Sixty thousand feet below, Crash responded in a filtered voice.

"I'm getting a better position against Lightning Unit, how about you?"

"I am currently attempting to wear down the performance of Stars Unit," the AI informed. "It would not be advantageous to continue to engage her at maximum performance levels without mission specific elements for defeating her."

"If that means tire her out first, I hear you!"

Nanoha was starting to become impatient. Her oxygen-starved mind was demanding a quick end to her conscious torture of itself in this low air hell. The barrier jacket was struggling to get what she needed from the air, but it was starting to reach its limits as EDI pitched up and climbed even higher, risking a stall. Nanoha was too stubborn to give up even now, and pushed further up after him.

Raising Heart took note of Blood Oxygen enrichment levels, and snapped a warning.

[MASTER, YOU SEEM TO BE DEVELOPING HYPOXIA, USE CAUTION]

Nanoha's hearing was still damaged from getting caught by the Iron Curtain, and she herself only heard the voice as a muffled tone.

EDI banked hard to the left, sliding excessively and coming dangerously close to a mid air stall. Nanoha reacted, bringing her staff to the front and leveling for a shot, gasping out her attack as she did so.

"Diviiiine..."

EDI detected a noticeable five percent drop in her reaction time. In the time it took her to gasp for breath between words, EDI continued and calculated five hundred separate outcomes, narrowing them down to three courses of action by probability, and acted.

"BUSTER!!!!"

Raising Heart fired its pink beam of magical Energy. At the same moment, EDI altered the thrust vectoring of his engines and snapped his internal bay open and selected his buster, rolling sideways and swinging around rapidly as Nanoha's attack blasted past his position. This time actually stalling somewhat in the air, he used his vertical lift fan to buy the calculated time needed to lock on. And as he did so, fired the buster energy he'd gathered.

Now with her mind even more oxygen starved from firing the strenuous attack, Nanoha barely registered the incoming Orange beam for over a second. Raising Heart realized it had to act in place of its master.

[FLASH MOVE!]

Nanoha was jerked out of place as her device moved her away from the attack. EDI quickly logged that information as his stability failed and he dropped into a stall.

Now out of danger for a moment, Nanoha had time to breathe, or at least try to. Her vision was wavering and giving way to blackness on the edges as she gasped desperately for air.

Noting the Blood/Oxygen levels in its master nearing critical, Raising Heart barked a very clear, and very loud response.

[MASTER!!! WE, MUST, DESCEND!!!]

Nanoha blankly nodded between ragged gasps, and for a lack of any other functional abilities, did the only thing her mind could comprehend to go down.

She simply stopped flying, and fell.

* * *

"Scramble a rescue helicopter!" Martin barked.

"HOLD UP!" Roland followed in so fast Martin had barely closed his mouth. "Cherry?"

"She's still conscious," the AI informed them from her screen. "That means she's still in the fight."

Roland put his hand on his Chin as Hayate glanced at a Vital Signs monitor that blinked up in concern. It showed Nanoha's Blood/Oxygen levels as compared to normal levels. She noted with a sigh that it was already starting to climb back up as Nanoha's descent accelerated with the help of gravity.

"You gotta' admit," Bloodberry opened fresh commentary. "That was pretty hard core right there."

"EPIC is more the word for it," Cooper interjected. "Playing King of the Hill, at the Top of the Sky."

"Well, she better get herself back in gear," Fox stated flatly. "EDI's already there."

* * *

Indeed, EDI was already well recovered from his stall, now circling Nanoha in a downward spiral. He would be sure to confirm his target was down before disengaging to assist Crash. Not given access to monitoring data at GEOFRONT, he could not confirm her consciousness level.

Nanoha herself was slowly coming back to full awareness as the air density increased with her fall. Raising Heart was counting off altitude as they dropped. She could hear the roar of EDI as he circled their position like a Shark patiently waiting to make the kill. Getting a deep lung full of oxygen rich air again, she finally shook off the feeling of nearly passing out from suffocation. Oxygen hit her brain like one of Vita's hammer blows, and she immediately understood her position and situation.

[FIFTEEN THOUSAND FEET]

Making a note NEVER to try that stunt again, Nanoha took stock of EDI's pattern and gripped Raising Heart.

[ARE YOU OKAY, MY MASTER?]

"I'm fine, get ready..."

[I AM READY!]

Nanoha spun and took aim, charging her Axle Shooter as she halted herself in mid air. EDI detected the magical charge and the sudden velocity change and broke his spiral, gunning his engines to out pace her.

"SHOOOOOOT!"

She only got off six shots, but each and every one of them scored home against EDI's snap barrier response, shaking the MADCAP as it accelerated away at high speed. Nanoha quickly aligned herself and gave chase. The fight was far from over.

* * *

Sand Island, McGreggor Complex G, was an atoll ring island roughly four kilometers in diameter. It's primary features included, predictably enough, that since it was mostly a beach barely above sea level, it almost nothing but a sand ring with a few scattered palm tree areas and shrub-like vegetation.

Its lagoon was shallow, and open on the northeast side to the rest of the ocean. The picture image of the perfect deserted island, it was often used on the weekends as a bit of an R&R spot for the Abenobashi Air Base staff, good for fishing and relaxing. During the week however, it was off limits. The site was often the rally point for the Vehicular Air Wing's practice dogfights, and being that there was pretty much nothing on the island that could be damaged or destroyed, often used as the most remote of the test areas.

Crash reinforced this last point as he hit the sand on the southwestern beach stretch with enough force to continue sliding a good twenty meters before he skipped a few paces to a stop. Quickly spinning in place, he searched the sky behind him for any sign of pursuit. He found the marker on his Heads Up Display that indicated Fate's position, and noted it was now a good five kilometers out from his position, and stationary.

"Don't tell me she didn't notice!" he gaped. "I didn't exactly sneak away, did we really blind her that well?"

[THAT APPEARS TO BE THE CASE, MOVEMENT PATTERNS SHOW DEFENSIVE POSTURE]

"Then let's reach out and touch her then."

[LANCE RIFLE CONFIGURATION]

The Multiform Rifle lurched in his hands, the barrel extending out twice its original distance as the hand guard slipped back and magically reformed into a metal casing with several holes lined up on each side. On the end, a ring closed down on the barrel and flashed, fading into a large muzzle brake while up on the upper receiver above the cartridge ejector, two more rings flashed into place, a high-tech smartscope forming between them.

When the sequenced finished, Crash was left holding a rifle that looked more appropriate for putting holes in small vehicles.

Quickly swinging the rifle into a good grip, he raised the scope to his faceplate and lined it up with Fate's location marker bracket on his HUD. Looking down the barrel, he quickly cycled up to thirty X zoom factor, then up to hyperzoom somewhere around five-hundred X, getting a clear view of her in the scope.

"She's really didn't notice!" he exclaimed. In his scope, Fate was floating stationary, slowly looking around her, turning a full circle every so often to check behind her. Bardiche was held at a strong ready posture. Crash then noticed that as she was looking around, the yellow EYE on Bardiche was held away from her face. It seemed to be blinking rather franticly. Piecing the puzzle together, Crash remembered that the 'eye' parts of a device only blinked in pattern when they were speaking. Certainly Bardiche had tracked their every movement to this location, and it would certainly be trying to warn her. Which meant...

"Holy SHIT! She's DEAF!" He gasped. "That sonic boom must have hit her harder than we thought! And the flares!"

He clicked open the line to base.

* * *

"Banshee One to Geofront, over."

Martin hit a button and responded.

"Go ahead Banshee One."

"Sir," Crash's voice crackled. "I think Lightning Unit might have an unknown level of hearing damage from our combat activities. Does anyone want to abort this exercise? Over."

"Stand by, over" Martin ordered. He turned in his chair to look up at Roland. "Your exercise, your call."

Roland put his hand on his chin, glanced at Crash holding his rifle steady on the display, and then over to Hayate.

"Refer to Maidens," he ordered. "Risk Assessment."

The MSM blinked from the real time feed to playback videos of combat that had recently occurred.

"Processing," Cherry's voice chimed.

Fast playbacks and brief pauses of EDI's hypersonic flyby flashed by on the screen, some moments showing various temperature, barometric pressure readings, graphical overlays, anatomy calculations. Information blinked by on the screen so fast only Reinforce could really even see what was going on. Information from MIDSAT B, Bardiche, EDI, Raising Heart, and Battery flashed by. Then the display froze showing EDI frozen in space on his pass, overlaid with a wire frame model showing the overpressure wave he was generating, and its intersection with Fate's ear. A smaller window opened in the image showing internal anatomy of an ear as Cherry brought up recent medical file information on Fate. More number overlays and calculations flashed by at high speed as the information was processed lightning fast. After a few moments the image froze. And in the middle of the display, the image flashed the words 'TEMPORARY HEARING LOSS'.

Then the whole thing shrunk and was placed in the corner as Cherry fast forwarded the footage to Fate's engagement with Crash, it paused at his howler flares. A three dimensional render was generated as she bracketed all 16 flares, then played the video showing the detonation sequence. The render produced shock fields and simulated their overlaps, played the turbulence across Fate, then zoomed into the ear image again, more simulations ran based off the results generated by the first event. After a few more seconds, the image froze.

'EXAGGERATED TEMPORARY HEARING LOSS.'

'POTENTIAL FOR PERMENANT HEARING DAMAGE: 15%'

"Minimal risk," Cherry Concluded. "Potential damage to her internal ear is negligible, and damage to her ear-drum can be repaired with simple healing magic."

"Then we continue," Rolland instructed, turning to the guests. "Any objections? We'll stop if there are any."

Hayate seemed to pause in thought. It was Signum who voiced the general opinion.

"I would trust she knows what she can handle," the Stoic knight concluded. "If she hasn't complained about it by now, it's not an issue to her."

The rest nodded in agreement. Roland returned his own nod and turned to Martin, giving a big thumbs up. Martin nodded and turned back to his console.

* * *

"NEGETIVE," his voice crackled over Crash's radio link. "Risk assessment shows condition green. Proceed with exercise. And give it everything you've got. Geofront out."

"Roger that!" Crash responded. Now he was left with a tactical opportunity, one in which he might actually be able to BEAT an ACE! That kind of situation didn't crop up every day.

"Mark for shot!" he ordered. "Maximum power! We'll do this in one clean hit!"

[CALCULATING SHOT SOLUTION]

Crash changed his stance to a wider position to brace himself. The nice thing about the Olympian armor system was that he could take these kind of shots fully standing, as if he were braced on a tripod.

[RANGE TO TARGET: FIVE-THOUSAND-TWENTY-THREE METERS]

[WIND: OUT OF THE WEST AT EIGHTEEN KNOTS]

A stiff breeze, but there was a front that blew through earlier in the morning.

[TARGET IS HUMANOID WITH BARRIER JACKET DEFENSE]

The aim point on the display highlighted a yellow mark and a red mark, on her chest and head respectively. They indicated suggested hit spots. Crash aimed at the head point and then Battery began doing micro adjustments to manage for environmental effects.

[ADJUSTING SCOPE FOR OPTICAL DISTORTION]

As far as Crash could tell, there was only a minor shift in visual clarity.

[ADJUSTING FOR THERMAL INTERFERENCE]

There was a brief overlay showing a natural warm air thermal in the path, the aim point shifted slightly to compensate and crash followed it with only the slightest shift down, assistance provided by Battery's fine control.

[ADJUSTING FOR MAGNETIC INTERFERENCE]

Another overlay flashed up, showing magnetic contour lines. After blinking twice, confirming no unusual anomalies, they vanished.

[ADJUSTING FOR TREMBLE]

[READY FOR SHOT SEQUENCE]

"Load up!" Crash ordered.

[LOADING]

'SNAP, SNAP, SNAP'

Three cartridges dropped to the ground next to Crash's feet. He felt his pulse jump and his chest tighten. On his heads up display, a new indicator flashed up showing both an estimation of cartridge power concentration, as well as a quick review of his heart rate and linker core status.

[HYPERLANCE EXTENSION]

The hole filled plate on the barrel just forward of the cartridge ejection port slid back, sucking in a hiss of air, and the weapon began to whine as it charged for the shot.

* * *

[SIR! THE OPPOSITION IS PREPARING TO ATTACK! TAKE ACTION!]

Fate barely heard the tone of Bardiche over the hollow ringing and throbbing in her ears. Now more frantic than ever that its master was unable to hear it, it had elevated its volume to a shout. Turning the Axe-shaped device so that the 'eye' was next to her ear, she listened again as closed her eyes to focus on sound.

[T--G-T IS F-V- K----ET-RS SO-----ST -F --R P-SITI-- -- T-E IS--D!]

She grimaced at the garbled sound she could hear.

* * *

"That's right, just keep looking at it ignorantly," Crash muttered, watching the percentage marker on his HUD count up to firing level. Charging the Lance required it to intake some air, then separate it into a packet of electrical energy, and a packet of ions. The plate covering the holes snapped forward, indicating that it was entering the second phase of the charge cycle.

"Almost there... SHEESH! I sound like an X-wing pilot now..."

* * *

"Display," Fate ordered, looking at Bardiche's 'eye'. The device responded by typing its message out directly on the reflective yellow component.

'TARGET IS FIVE KILOMETERS SOUTHWEST OF OUR POSITION ON THE ISLAND'

Fate's eyes were reflexively drawn to the island in question in the distance. Bardiche quickly followed up with the second typed warning.

'ATTACK IMMINENT!'

Fate lowered Bardiche immediately and focused more. If an attack was coming, she'd see it long before it got to her.

* * *

"She knows where we arrrrrre," Crash singsonged as he watched her turn to them in his scope. At the same time, the bracket around her turned green and the percentage counter struck one hundred.

"But too late!"

[LANCE RIFLE PRIMED! FIRE AT WILL!]

Crash squeezed the trigger. The barrier compressing and heating the packet of plasma vanished, allowing it to expand with incredible force along the inside of the barrel until it came into contact with the back of the magical 'bullet' that had been filled with densely packed electrons. The resulting push hurled the magical round clear of the barrel at speeds equal to basic mass type weapons. The plasma concussion following it created a cone of fire and a blast wave that kicked up the sand near Crash, and a recoil that would have knocked him off his feet if he hadn't been wearing several hundred pounds of metal.

Fate, as far away as she was, saw the flash of the plasma. Cocking her head ever so slightly to the left, she tried to gauge what kind of attack it was. He couldn't seriously be attacking at this range with a shot she couldn't-

'CRACK! WHOOMP!'

-DODGE?!

If the rippled distortion in the air was any indicator of the brief blue streak in the corner of her vision... something had just gone right past her ear at supersonic velocity. Why didn't the autoguard fire?

As her head reflexively spun towards where the ripples were fading away, her mind quickly assessed the event. A Magic bullet of that velocity was simply not possible for a mage. And the range it just got fired at was on par with Nanoha's longest ranged busters. And the only thing that had kept it from hitting her right between the eyes, was tilting her head at the right moment.

The next thing she realized was that if there was an attack that could fire at this range like that, being stationary was not a good idea. She immediately leapt sideways, taking off in a blur, intending to keep the shooter from getting another clear shot.

* * *

"LUCKY DODGE!!!!" Crash howled as Fate bolted out of view of his scope. The shot had only missed her ear by a hair's breadth. He resisted the urge to break into a string of swears that would sound like Don on a good day as he reflexively flipped back in zoom levels, before just lowering the whole rifle. Her marker bracket indicated she was closing fast on his position, and now she was jinking all over the place. If his heavy breathing was any indication, he wasn't firing that shot twice so close together. Not that he could, the recycle on the rifle wouldn't allow it until it had sufficiently cooled. A brief hiss as the vent mechanism cycled open illustrated this quite nicely.

* * *

'Nanoha!' Fate transmitted over her telepathic link. 'Crash just fired some kind of long range shot at me. It was at least the same range as your favorite buster skills.'

'What kind of beam was it?' Nanoha's mental response seemed occupied.

'I don't know,' Fate admitted. 'I don't think it was a beam... It moved so fast I couldn't even see it.'

'That's REALLY fast!' Nanoha admitted. 'It seems our opponents are just full of surprises for us!'

'Don't let your guard down,' Fate finished.

'Of course not!'

* * *

"Okay..." Crash began as Battery turned the Lance back into the Multiform rifle. "Need a new plan..." He looked around at the island. It didn't respond.

"I got nothing!" he snapped in frustration. "EDI! Sitrep!"

"Currently engaged with Stars Unit," the AI resonated. "My status is Evasive."

"Never mind then," Crash responded. "But bring it this way, I might need support..."

Crash watched the bracket marking Fate close below three thousand meters. Still outside of man-sized visual range for the MK-1 Eyeball, which means she doesn't know exactly where he's standing. Would be nice if this were a JUNGLE, but the beach didn't present any cover or concealment.

And then the bracket turned yellow. Scratch not knowing where he was. Crash turned, shoving the multiform rifle over his shoulder to store it and began to run through the sand, she was just going to hit the entire south stretch!

[WARNING! CARTRIDGE IMPULSE DETECTED!]

Crash watched the marker turn red. "Defend or Evade!?" he asked Battery.

[STAND BY!]

"Stand by?!" he snapped in irritation. "Answers?! Need them! NOW!"

* * *

Above him Fate had her solution ready.

[THUNDERBLADE]

The response was instant.

[DEFEND!]

Crash spun to a halt, planting his feet in the sand as he slid. The MADAM system immediately delivered everything it had to defensive mode.

[CHOLBHAM ARMOR]

First went up a Wedge Shield, followed by a round shield, then a barrier, a field and another barrier.

"HOLY-"

And not a moment too soon. At that moment, the entire south stretch of Sand Island turned into an electrical storm and a spray of sand when Fate's attack hit the beach with the force of a cluster bomb. A direct hit glanced off the shallow angle of the wedge shield, blasting the sand up along side him while barrier absorbed the shockwave. Two more bolts struck the barrier and field, and created more pressure as debris and instantly formed fragments of molten glass rained down on him.

"-SHIT!" he finished after a moment. "Where was THAT defense when I needed it four months ago?"

[ENERGY RESTRICTIONS REQUIRE STATIONARY PLATFORM]

"In other words, I have to be on the ground for it to- FOCUS CRASH!" he snapped at himself for falling into analytical mode for a second. As he said that, he managed to find the bracket marking Fate despite the smoke, and his eyes widened in shock as she blitzed in from the left. A few things clicked in his mind. Fate was on him, he'd just used his energy on a powerful defense, and he wasn't getting a strafe out of this one. Her silhouette broke through the smoke, Bardiche high for another fast hit, and the only thing that was equally fast was the reflex action to prevent things from hitting him in the head.

'CLANG!'

After a moment, Crash stopped wincing in anticipation when he realized the blow hadn't smeared him... in fact, his arm barely moved. Risking a glance, he realized the arcing blade of Bardiche was resting directly against his arm, leaving only a minor scorch against the plate. Fate seemed to be equally puzzled right next to him. Then it hit him. Reinforced powered chassis, armor plating two cm thick made of tungsten carbide and titanium composites, backed by barrier jacket magics...

"Oh yeah..." his filtered voice came through the faceplate. "I forgot..."

Fate looked at him curious.

"I'm a TANK!" he thundered.

Crash Emphasized 'TANK!' with a vicious right hook coming around and down on Fate, who barely threw up a snap guard to prevent the counterstrike from putting her down on the spot. Even still, her hastily erected defense didn't stop the blow, just held it away from her, sending her flying as if she were hit by a truck, only to be backstopped by an unlucky palm tree some ten meters back. Eliciting a yelp of pain from the ace mage and a loud 'crack!' which Crash thought for a horrifying moment might have been her spine snapping. Which, would be just what he needed... KILLING an ACE on ACCIDENT. A new record low!

He was relieved a moment later when the whole tree came down instead, and Fate struggled to regain her feet.

"Uh... you okay?" he asked. "I didn't mean to hit QUITE that hard."

She struggled to her feet, shook her head a little, and simply glared at him with a simple smirk. Crash felt his heart rate climb suddenly. And not in a good way...

[ZANBER FORM]

Bardiche rotated, folded open, and began to transform in Fate's grip. Crash simply watched with a slight twitch as the axe-like weapon in the Ace's grip changed into a completely new design, impossibly moving parts of its structure via mechanisms that should technically have no room in the structure to even exist, throwing out all his tactical concepts of her in a heartbeat. With a snap of two cartridges, the yellow blade ignited in her hands. Crash suddenly realized she fully intended to counter his monster strength, with a monster blade of her own, and he voiced his opinion with well-chosen words that fit his line of thought to a tee.

"Oh god, I think I pissed her off..."

* * *

"NAW! Ya' THINK!?" Fox stated as if in reply from her seat back at TICTOCC. Not that Crash could hear her comment on a one-way monitoring channel.

* * *

Fate brought Bardiche up over her shoulder with a light swing, intending to give a quick weight test to 'calibrate' herself, as well as intimidate her foe. In the mean time, Crash was feeling the Intimidation quite well.

"Uh... EDI?" he came over the Comm. "Requesting backup... like... NOW."

* * *

Forty kilometers northwest of their position, EDI calculated the probable outcome based on the tone of Crash's voice coming through the communications link. The high stress, and seeming near panic tone indicated Crash would be at the disadvantageous side of the situation unless he received immediate support. This of course, all occurred in under a second as he led Nanoha on a high-speed chase over the ocean.

With a sudden loud crack and a flare from his engines, EDI switched over to the Magic Pulse Driver engines, accelerating immediately away from Nanoha in an almost mocking boost of speed, easily breaking the sound barrier and beyond.

* * *

Knowing the situation had just degraded from risky to plain GRIM, Crash did the best he could. Remembering something Roland had said when he's seen the General practicing Bayonet moves, he adopted a similar stance, bracing the multiform rifle in two hands. He was glad Fate couldn't see his face through the faceplate of the armor helmet as he bit his lip in anticipation. She was just standing there, almost basking in her intimidating stance. 'JUST ATTACK ALREADY!'

"HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Maybe he had accidentally transmitted a telepathic message....

Fate hurled herself forward, bringing her Zanber back behind her. Crash hurled himself forward at the same time, intending to counter her impact with his own added velocity. As they closed the small distance, she brought Bardiche high over her head. In an instant, Crash flashed back to something Fox had once shown him about momentum. She'd told him that blocking was exhausting, and that it was usually better to redirect a blow to the side. And he realized quite effectively how that worked. Energy couldn't be created or destroyed, and it had to go SOMEWHERE. If that translated as he had experienced for the last couple of years or more it meant...

Crash planted his feet, sliding just a bit, pushing off with his right foot and bringing the butt of his multiform rifle up and around as hard as he could. A loud metallic crack rewarded his move as it collided with the side of the Zanber blade, the force of the impact actually grossly overpowered for the parry he was attempting, which threw Bardiche sideways out of the angle of the swing to slam into the sand by his foot. For the brief second they ended up face to face, Crash could swear he saw shock on Fate's features. Considering he had never really trained in any real close combat outside what Fox taught him from time to time, he felt the same way since that had worked.

Fate immediately proved her superior combat experience by not letting yet another surprise interrupt her as she sprang into the air immediately, just missing a reverse swing from Crash's weapon intending to knock her silly. It served to pull Bardiche clear of the sand as she flipped over him in a shallow arc. Crash reacted on impulse, quickly grabbing the pistol grip and swinging the muzzle at her estimated landing spot. The MADAM shifted to power.

'CRACK!'

Fate landed in a guard stance, having seen his hand move in mid air, and bounced the hasty shot off Bardiche.

Crash dug his armored feet in as the MADAM switched to maneuverability, giving the leg support mechanisms increased power as he launched into a charge of his own, forcing Fate to defend with a high guard. The blow Crash launched with heavy buttstock jab at her face was absorbed by the Zanber, sending her sliding backwards from the hit, luckily without impacting any trees this time. But Crash didn't stop advancing. Rolland had told him the key to a Bayonet attack was aggression.

Fate didn't want to block that much mass constantly, and dove sideways in a blur as Crash jumped and tried to replicate her overhead swing with the MFR. Crash hit the sand with a heavy thud, almost overextending the strike but luckily corrected by the Armor's superior control. The next thing he remembered Roland showing off hit his mind.

'WHIRL!'

"KILL!" He snarled, pushing off with his right foot, leading around with the muzzle end of the MFR.

'CLANG!'

He was rewarded with a successful block of a fast strike from her Zanber.

The snarl of the word was just repetition of everything he'd remembered seeing the General do, but the aggressive sound felt good. He grit his teeth and shoved into the blow, pushing her off and gaining momentum again. She leapt backwards, splashing slightly as they approached the edge of the water. Taking further initiative, Crash decided to go with what worked for him up to this point, just try and wear her down and let the Armor do the work.

Just before he reached her, Fate jumped, right up, on top of his armor, and kicked off, causing Crash to tumble headfirst right into wet sand. So much for that idea... But holding still wouldn't win this mock fight. Crash pushed with his arms, rolling into the water, and just out of the way of Bardiche as it stabbed directly into the sand where his back had been. Fate was seriously fast, even with an oversize sword.

Crash took the opportunity while Fate pulled the Zanber out of the sand to get back on his feet, scooping sand with his free hand as he did so, and got an idea. She was partially deaf at the moment... why not? Still, it seemed rather low, but all's fair in love, and WAR!

He spun, hurling the glob of wet sand at her. Fate instinctively reacted bringing Bardiche to block, and got a smattering of it right in the face, splattered into a cloud by the magical blade. The cold, wet, stinging grit sensation immediately made her eyes burn and snap shut as she realized what he'd thrown. Not bad, not bad... But her instincts told her that would be when the bulrush he used came, like a hunter on a cornered animal.

But like a cornered Animal, this was when Fate was the most dangerous.

Crash, without the advantage of years of actual COMBAT experience, didn't realize this as he planted his feet and charged her, preparing to just tackle the Ace to the ground and win by a mere pin. Fate imagined his predictable actions in her head, and timed her next jump just as he swung his arms in to grab her, and flipped right over him.

"What th-" Crash stumbled, trying to spin, but Fate was already in motion. Her feet hit the ground in position, and immediately pushed off, allowing her to bring her Zanber around like a baseball bat.

Her face grew a smirk as the blade hit satisfyingly solid resistance, which gave after a moment.

Crash took the Zanber to the back armor, and was sent flying with rather explosive force, smashing straight through a palm tree across the dry section of the island and skidding through the sand. On the tail end, he hit the water with enough force to launch a column of it a good distance into the air.

The HUD flashed with a red border as he pulled himself out of the drink and spun to look at Fate, who was splashing water on her face across the island from him.

[WARNING! MADAM SYSTEM DAMAGE!]

Crash swore for a moment realizing that blow had inflicted damage to the armor. Even as he said that, the display showing the MADAM's status blinked erroneously.

"Why do I feel like I've been thrown into a Metroid Game?" he asked whimsically. He readied his rifle, and spun to get ready for another round from Fate. Only to find himself staring at a large yellow spell circle.

"Oh shi-"

"Plasma..."

Bardiche pumped a cartridge.

"SMASHER!"

And Fate fired a large plasma beam right at him.

"TOO HOT!" Crash yelped, crouching down, and then leaping as hard as he could into the air. The good news was that he avoided the beam, the bad news was that upon landing, the jolt shook his HUD, and to his horror, it started to blink...

"Oh, no... no no no no...."

...before going static and blinking off completely.

[M.A.D. ACTIVE MANAGEMENT OFFLINE! HEADS UP DISPLAY OFFLINE, ATTEMPTING TO REBOOT]

Crash grit is teeth as he was once again at a major disadvantage. Fate was rushing him once more, and this she was making sure to aim right.

"EDI! If you have an element for the dramatic! NOW would be a good time!"

Fate launched, and Crash noted she had put some angle to the swing as it came over her shoulder. He blocked... and the entire force of the blow slammed into his defense. His feet instantly distributed that energy into the ground, almost burying them up to the shin from the force. Fate bounced back and prepared to deliver another hammer blow, intending for a coup-de-gras.

* * *

EDI hit ten feet off the surface around mach four, pushing up to dash speed as he shot along the surface of the water as Crash made his plea for assistance, well outrunning Nanoha as she tried her best to catch up... Sand Island was easy to see on the sensors, and Crash was easy to make out in signature from Fate. Establishing an atmospheric barrier to protect him during the next shot, EDI's internal bay snapped open, and the rotary rack deployed his buster system.

"Banshee two, engaging Lightning One," he resonated, charging for a buster shot at high Mach.

* * *

'LOOK OUT! EDI's coming in fast!'

Fate stopped short when Nanoha's Telepathic warning hit. She saw the orange blink out of the corner of her eye as EDI fired his buster. Augmented by mach five dash velocity, the beam lanced across the island at record speed, just narrowly passing right between Crash and Fate, and even more narrowly missing taking her out in the process. A moment later, EDI shot over the Lagoon, twin towers of water erupting in his wake before he ripped right over the treetops with a sonic boom that kicked sand off the ground as he passed. In the roar, he dispatched an Iron Curtain, which detonated into an extended blinding and deafening event.

Fate instinctively plugged her fingers into her ears and shut her eyes to avoid the noise this time around, her hearing was torn up as it was. Crash used the momentary confusion to crouch down, initiate the Grav. Drive, and take off into the sky after EDI.

When the roar died down, Fate glanced around to make sure she wouldn't get sucker punched. About this time, Nanoha flew overhead at a more sedate speed. Knowing where their opponents had gone, she leapt into the sky to follow her friend.

* * *

"Thanks for the save," crash stated as he caught up with EDI, who'd dropped back to sub-sonic by the time they were over Angel Island, the next Island in the Archipelago. "I thought I was toast."

"You are welcome..." EDI resonated. "According to my Calculations, there seems to be a seventy-five Percent inconsistency with their demonstrated skill level during the progression of this exercise"

"What?"

"During our various confrontations, I have noted an intermittent pattern of varying skill level on roughly a three-out-of-four ratio. Seventy-five percent of the time, their decisions and actions are roughly equal to what we have presented so far, and during the other twenty-five percent, they show an exponential increase in combat prowess surpassing our own when they are at a tactical disadvantage."

"Wait," Crash looked over at the aircraft. "So they're going EASY on us?"

"That would be an acceptable conclusion."

Crash felt his pride take a hit. And here he was sweating they were going to smear him, when in fact, they were doing their best to make it even for his own sake. To another person, that would be a reassuring thought. To Crash, who'd just spent the last five minutes half scared despite this being an exercise, it was an insult to his position. They would give just enough to make it feel like he was close to winning, but kept their edge when they needed it so they would be sure to win. It pissed him off.

"So we know they're fooling around, and they don't know we know," he frowned. "Let's use that to our advantage." Then he paused, and looked at EDI. "Wait, HOW do we use that to our advantage?"

EDI seemed to already have calculated the situation.

"They have demonstrated a disparity between their physical and magical skills, and their Strategic and Tactical capability. During our encounters they have shown to react to our advances rather than take affirmative action to engage us. Their strategic actions show little planned cohesion, and their tactical actions show signs of linear thinking. Any action we perform has been met with a well executed but predictable pattern of standard defensive responses. All of our tactical advantages have come from executing unpredictable and unstructured forms of offense against them."

"Then we need to get creative," Crash responded.

"Negative," EDI resonated. "Mere creativity will not give us the Tactical Advantage to match their high level skills. We must take strategic action and psychological counter-action simultaneously, utilize their own actions against them, and execute maximum efficiency in a minimum amount of time. We must degrade their performance, knock out their communications, reduce their tactical options, and apply pressure while they least expect it, while using their own restraint as our chief weapon."

Crash looked at the machine next to him with slight shock.

"That's ruthless man," he stated after a moment. "Where'd you come up with THAT?"

"I am designed to destroy the enemy."

Crash couldn't help but be silent at that simple logic. The E.D.I. MADCAP's objectivity was slightly frightening. It brought anything he'd ever read in 'The Art of War', to frightening clarity.

"What's the first order of business?" he asked.

EDI resonated immediately.

"Disable Command and Control, as well as Communications."

"How do we do that?" Crash asked. "They're telepathic."

"Accounted for," the MADCAP intoned. "I have isolated the magical transmission they've been using for telepathic communications. Since it is the only Telepathic communications occurring within range of my sensors, It is advisable to apply a blanket telepathic jam."

"A barrier that powerful isn't something I can exactly do," Crash responded.

"I did not imply the use of an inefficient barrier," EDI informed him. "Their communications need only be rendered non-functional. There are simpler ways of performing this action."

"Then... how," Crash began.

"Please ensure you are not susceptible to telepathic return," EDI stated. Crash nodded, and then EDI followed up a few seconds later. "Beginning Telepathic Countermeasures."

* * *

-!!!-

It was as if someone had taken fingernails, and dragged them right across a chalkboard, inside her own head. Nanoha came to a halt, with Fate nearly colliding with her as they both grabbed their heads in unison. The high pitched whining was worse than a chalk board actually, it was as if someone had taken all the worst sounds to ever exist, threw them together, cranked the volume up to maximum, and then injected it directly into their brains. In a word, it was agonizing.

* * *

At the same time, Hayate, Signum, Vita, Shamal, Rein, Fox, and Martin all jumped and grabbed at their own heads within the depths of TICTOCC. After a few seconds to collect themselves, they each quickly cut their telepathic reception as fast as they could.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Vita snarled. "What just happened?"

Roland watched the actions of the group around him with minor confusion. Not being the least bit magical, he had no access to Telepathy.

"I was about to ask the same thing," he stated. "Y'all look like you just got a banshee scream to the face." He then turned to the MSM. "Cherry?"

"The MADCAP has instituted a blanket area jamming effect on Telepathic Communications," the AI made it clear by blinking up a display of the Telepathic spectrum, showing it completely out of whack. "All telepathic communications within a fifty kilometer radius of the airframe are now impossible without a boost in the signal gain, which is not possible for mages without external assistance."

"THAT was jamming?" Signum asked as she massaged her forehead.

"That was definitely jamming," Shamal returned as she duplicated the action. "Crude jamming, but jamming."

"Simple yet Effective," Roland nodded as he turned to the MSM, now showing the combatants again. He laced his hands and leaned into them in a manner similar to another fictional character that related to Fox's looks. After a pause, he realized it and rolled his eyes to himself.

'God, I'm turning into Gendo,' he thought. 'Just get me a Misato Katsuragi personality down here and we're all set.'

* * *

"Second order of business," Crash stated after EDI confirmed Nanoha and Fate's sudden halt in mid air. "My HUD's out, and I had a really hard time keeping up with Unit Lightning. We're going to have to switch targets."

"A logical conclusion," the MADCAP droned. "However, it would be ill advised to continue engaging the opposition in single-combat scenarios. Unfortunately, if we engage as a team, they will not be split up, and will be able to communicate using conventional methods while assisting each other. This would thus render my jamming interference a non-factor."

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't," Crash muttered. "Let's pick the option that takes the most advantage of our ability to communicate when they can't."

"Affirmative," EDI responded. "I will engage unit Lightning, you will engage unit Stars. Remember not to hesitate for any action, or you will be subject to immediate retaliation. Unit Stars has shown to be quite adaptable."

"Roger that," Crash responded. "Let's stick it to them."

They broke formation, coming around hard, and accelerating to mount their attack. All or nothing.

* * *

[SIR!]

[MASTER!]

Nanoha and Fate both looked forwards again as their devices barked a warning. The Orange flash in the distance alerted them to a ranged shot from EDI as the Drone Hunter engaged them at range.

They scattered away from the blast, as EDI came screaming in hard at MACH three, unloading a Hornet's nest in the process.

"Banshee Two Engaged," he resonated. Rolling and diving at high mach. The eight orange bolts locked on to fate and began zipping after her at high speed. Nanoha tried to retaliate by snapping off a quick bolt but the MADCAP evaded in his dive. At the same time, she noticed the glint off Crash's armor as he followed in at Mach two himself. Spinning around to take aim, she prepared to test his skills with a Axle shooter-

'CRACK!'

-And he was ten meters away...

Even her fast mind didn't have time to react as a Mach Two body slammed into her autoguard. Rather than try to bring that much impact force to her relative standstill, she recoiled off the blow, being hurled backwards along Crash's trajectory as her mind caught up with the fact that he somehow just jumped a large distance in an eye-blink. Crash rotated in the air and kicked off the shield, pushing her further back as he fell back for a few rifle shots. She took the opportunity for a Flash move upwards, snapping away as his first shot was fired.

Switching to automatic fire, Crash leaned back, using the simple sights on the multiform rifle to line up Nanoha as she zoomed upwards, then cut loose with a hail of small bolts. Gritting his teeth more, he tracked her as she climbed, finally managing to score a shot right past her ear.

Nanoha retaliated by flipping backwards, leaning into her staff and firing a fast moving swarm of magic bolts. Crash saw them and simply dropped backwards in the direction he was drifting, then accelerated hard and rolling left and breaking before he risked a fast glance over his shoulder to confirm they were her homing brand. Eight bolts in his sight made it absolutely clear they indeed were. Crash broke into a different direction, forming a zigzag pattern as he raced to stay ahead of the game, faintly realizing he'd begun to chant the mantra of 'six-on-one, six-on-one' in order to boost his confidence.

[HUD RESTORED]

Battery nearly scared him as it boomed an alert, a moment later the information displays blinked to life, immediately showing eight red brackets in the corners of his vision and a yellow one to mark Nanoha.

"Active Target Assist and pop flares!!" he snapped, Battery immediately responded to his command.

[AFFIRMATIVE!]

Crash broke, unloading a swarm of howler flares into the air, then spun in mid air as he did so, bringing the Multiform Rifle about and letting loose automatic fire. Losing velocity and altitude quickly, he started worming his way around in mid-air as he curled impossibly around trying to tag the pink bolts, while at the same time avoid being hit by them. With a satisfying crack, one of his shots pegged one. Then another, and another. He could feel his arms jerk slightly as Battery forced correction to his exaggerated general direction of aim. After a few seconds of getting used to it, he managed to finish off the remaining five in short order before coming to a halt in the air.

[WARNING! CARTRIDGE IMPULSE DETECTED!]

He spun towards Nanoha's marker bracket as it blinked red. She was already set up with a series of spell circles, Raising Heart forming a pink orb at its tip. Crash's eyes narrowed.

"DIVIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!"

'THUM-BOOM'

Crash folded in on himself and disappeared in a flash.

"B-EH?!'

"CRACK!"

The sound came from behind, and Nanoha immediately recognized it as she spun to defend. This time she had ample time to think about what he'd done. It must have been this same technique that allowed him to evade Fate a few minutes ago. He'd used it to suddenly close distance while maintaining his high-speed charge to slam her, and this time, he used it to try and flank her. Without the speed this time, it didn't hit nearly as hard, even as his fist slammed right into her shield. She turned it a little and forced the blow to glance off to the side, just as she'd learned long ago, then brought Raising Heart up to retaliate.

It was met with the stock of the Multiform Rifle as Crash spun with the deflection and came around. Crash took the momentary strength advantage with leverage and threw Nanoha backwards, keeping a close eye on the pink orb at the end of her staff. Knowing full well she could still fire that buster off. He continued with the aggressive motion, keeping in close to Nanoha to prevent her from making use of it.

They collided again, this time fighting to gain a leverage advantage. Nanoha found herself smiling as the opponent in front of her presented a stubborn front.

This time, Nanoha won the exchange, shoving Crash's heavier mass downwards and stomping on his helmet once to throw him away, giving her enough time to sight up her buster.

Hurtling down, Crash extended his arm as he looked up, taking sloppy aim at the bright orb above him. With the usual report from the Multiform Rifle, the bluish bolt shot upwards.

Nanoha saw the bolt hit just as she opened her mouth to finish her attack phrase, it immediately twitched into wry smirk, and a sweatdrop.

'BOOM!!!'

Crash's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't expected anything to EXPLODE! Swinging himself into the upright position, and coming to a halt. He stared up at the blast of uncontrolled magic.

Above him, the small smoke cloud cleared, and he let out a grouchy sigh. Nanoha lowered her arm from in front of her face, a devious smile now painting her features as he noted she was completely unharmed by the explosion. Then something else caught his attention. Raising Heart ejected a spent cartridge.

How many cartridges did that casing have? Six? Eight? Without them, the mage would need a long charge time, and time was on their side.

"Banshee One to Banshee Two," he crackled. "Track ammunition usage on opposition, they loose a significant portion of their combat power if they run out of cartridges."

* * *

"Affirmative," EDI resonated, zipping between clouds. At Mach One Point Five, both the drone hunter and Fate were engaged in a supersonic dogfight, constantly exchanging positions as each one fought for Air Supremacy. It was well matched compared to the previous pair off. Fate had more agility, but EDI had the ability to calculate further ahead, and faster.

His sensors detected a swarm of Fate's plasma lancer bolts, and he broke into a dive, driving up to Mach Two as he did so, then broke along coast of Angel Island. They shot over the Seimei Mass Weapon Disposal Site, surprising several disposal workers with a twin set of sonic booms as they prepared for a mid afternoon detonation.

EDI Retaliated to Fate's seekers with another shot from the Hornet's Nest. And while she was distracted, fired off another Iron Curtain.

Looping and then breaking, Fate found herself in a cloud of noise, but so focused was she on the chasing orbs that she barely noticed. Touching down briefly on an observation tower, she immediately kicked off the surface as EDI's attacks found home, firing away from the tower with a surface reinforced Sonic Move. As she broke open over the Ocean again, she realized she lost sight of her target, and broke right just as a stream of Cerberus fire intersected her position. With EDI back on her tail, she shot upwards and weaved, even as the first of several quick busters sizzled past her. Rolling on her back, she dove in a cyclic pattern for the waves again and shot southeast as two more quickly scorched orange streaks where she'd just been.

Streaking along the waves at Mach Two Plus, Complex B looming closer in the distance, she looked back as EDI himself caught up. She looked over at the arrowhead shaped drone fighter and smirked. They flew side by side towards the next island for a few seconds before EDI angled up, rolled onto his back, and skirted his cockpit feature right over the top of her. Was he was showing off? She suppressed the urge to Laugh as EDI returned to the upright on the other side.

"You think you can keep up?" she asked over the roar of supersonic wind.

"AFFIRMATIVE." EDI's barely audible reply resonated.

Fate concentrated... everything she had into pure speed. Exhilarating!

They accelerated, Fate taking lead as they thundered over the B Complex Shoreline. In a nanosecond, EDI made a network entry that Fate just broke the Mage Airspeed Record for Unassisted flight by crossing the Mach Three threshold. (Crash didn't qualify due to special assistance provided by his Armor systems.)

* * *

"Sweet Mother of-" Roland caught himself and stopped abruptly as the airspeed indicator clocked their speed. Even the other girls present seemed to be gawking at the sight of Fate pulling a Mach Three velocity at sea level.

"Here we go!" Fate shouted, seeing the complex building ahead, she was brushing just above treetops and shrubs, kicking up a cloud of dust with her passing.

* * *

Vice looked up as several mechanics who'd joined him on the Helipad pointed and shouted. What came next, frankly, made him drop the tool he'd been holding. A Yellow streak shot between the building he was on and another, then arced sharply around a building further in its path. Right behind it, a Triangular Blur performed an exact copy. It was the sonic booms that shook him out a moment later. Was that Fate?

[NICE MOVES!]

He smiled back at Storm Raider as the AI chimed excitedly at the acrobatics display.

* * *

Don emerged from Test Lab Two's main entrance just in time to see a yellow streak whip past, almost immediately followed by a black blur... The sonic booms they generated immediately threw him backwards in the door. His first thought over the sound of his own heartbeat was how many windows were going to need replacing, but then remembered he'd replaced them all with shatter-proof plexiglass two months after Crash arrived on base.

Fate shot through all the narrow gaps she could find, and kept searching for sharp turns, breaking suddenly around corners and buildings. Right on her heals by about thirty meters, EDI replicated her moves, augmenting his natural airfoil shape with barriers where he needed to... save for a couple where it was simply impossible because he just wouldn't FIT.

This was clearest when she shot through a small archway, EDI simply rolled up and over the top and between a pair of palm trees planted on the other side. In fifteen seconds, they cleared the island and shot out to sea on the other side, heading for the Air Base.

* * *

"GEOFRONT to Tower," Martin snapped in front of the group. "All aircraft Caution Holding Pattern, relay immediately!"

"Roger that GEOFRONT," came the response, then a general channel call. "All aircraft, Caution Alert, hold pattern until further notice."

* * *

Fate looked to the side as EDI came back along side her. So he could hang in there. She felt a certain thrill to see something like that.

"Now see if you can hang," the drone resonated.

She arched an eyebrow when suddenly, with a crack, EDI switched over to his Pulse Detonators, accelerating towards the mach four threshold.

She watched as the drone gained distance, kicking up a spray of water as he did so, then looked down at Bardiche.

[LOAD CARTRIDGE]

Bardiche snapped into a cartridge, sending what felt like an adrenaline rush into Fate's body. The yellow aura produced by the interaction of her high-speed barrier with the surrounding air flared suddenly as the boost reached her linker core.

She grit her teeth and shot forward, faster than ever.

* * *

"She can't seriously be trying to race that JET!" Vita gaped. "Impossible!"

Signum opened her mouth to comment, but Roland beat her to it.

"It is aerodynamically impossible for a Bumble Bee to fly," he stated. "The Bumble Bee flies anyway."

Vita gave Roland an incredulous look. What was THAT supposed to mean?

"Mach Three Point Eight," Cherry chimed.

* * *

EDI kept steady distance ahead of Fate as she accelerated. Every second, she set a new record, then broke it, setting a new one. She broke Mach Four as they shot over the Air Base proper, gathering cheers and whoops from the flight crews on the ground as they thundered overhead at more than four times the speed of sound. The twin sonic booms echoed off the old hangars nearby.

Overhead, a few of the aircraft orbiting in a holding pattern watched in awe as the mage, nothing more than a yellow contrail just above the surface, kept right after the MADCAP.

'SNAP!'

Bardiche bit into another cartridge, surging her just that much more as she tried to get back on EDI's wing. But this wasn't going to last much longer, she'd eat through too much cartridge energy before she caught up, it wasn't weight, it was the drag.

EDI calculated her magic usage based on the cartridge interval he'd just detected. After a nanosecond, he calculated how to optimize the hydrodynamic flow over the barrier, then bounced the information off MIDSAT B to Cherry, who confirmed the data in another nanosecond then bounced it back. From there, EDI accessed the Device Transmission Channel and fed the data to Bardiche, which processed the information in only a slightly more laggy two nanoseconds before responding with a satisfactory response.

Fate grit her teeth for a second as Bardiche bit into the last cartridge she had before she would have to reload. Getting another jolt of magical energy as she continued to chase. She couldn't really tell from the inside that her barrier changed shape, elongating into almost spear-like qualities.

Ahead, EDI stopped gaining distance, she tried to push a little more to close the gap.

[SIR, WE ARE HYPERSONIC]

Fate almost let go of Bardiche in shock.

* * *

"Confirm Velocity," Roland stated, turning to Cherry's display.

"Altitude, twenty feet or Six Meters," the AI informed them. "Air pressure is Fourteen, point six-eight-three Pounds Per Square Inch... Air Speed is Three thousand, eight hundred and seven, point five-Miles Per Hour. Mach Five. Fate Testarossa has broken the Mage Airspeed Record for unassisted flight and set a new TSAB record by achieving Hypersonic unassisted flight."

There was a small metal clang as Cooper actually dropped one of his empty drink cans.

* * *

Fate continued to streak along at hypersonic behind the MADCAP as EDI recorded the magic efficiency. After a few seconds, EDI decided to return to the Mission. He cut thrust.

Fate saw the MADCAP suddenly drop back towards her and realized she would smack into it if she didn't move. And broke upwards. At that moment she realized the second problem. At Mach Five, it was that much harder to turn!

She barely skirted over the top of the drone as it slowed down in a hurry against the mighty forces of DRAG, dropping back behind her and snapping open it's internal bay to select the buster shooter.

Looking over her shoulder, and out of Cartridges, Fate quickly assessed that agility wasn't an option, but maybe...

"BARDICHE!"

[YES SIR!]

Two could play that game.

As an Intelligent Device, Bardiche learned. And once EDI had taught it how to optimize the airflow potential over the Aerodynamics Barrier, the device easily understood how to reverse the effect, and turned the hypersonic cone into an airbrake.

Fate had already understood, and was prepared as the forces of drag greeted her by violently yanking her backwards, or at least, it seemed like it. The acceleration was on par with a sonic move, hurling back towards the MADCAP as she bled of almost an order of Mach. At the last second, as EDI calculated and prepared to continue the game by deploying his own airbrake barrier, she reached out as she passed over the forward lip of his intake, and grabbed the edge, pulling herself onto the top of the drone.

EDI detected her unauthorized boarding due to change in his Aerodynamics patterns, and immediately started to climb. Fate held on as hard as she could as the MADCAP tried to throw her off by executing a fast roll. Hard turns still weren't possible as their velocity was still above Mach Three-point-five. Fate Raised Bardiche into the air as they righted. Then brought it down hard.

'CLANG!'

She didn't use any actual power in the attack, opting to not do any real damage, but Bardiche transmitted simulated data to EDI, and up to MIDSAT B, which bounced to Cherry. In only a few Nanoseconds, they all reached a conclusion.

* * *

"Terminal impact strike," Cherry informed everyone in TICTOCC. "Under actual combat conditions, the airframe would be destroyed in moments by Aerodynamic stress. EDI has been neutralized."

EDI leveled off, dropping back to scramjet power and dropping back to subsonic, allowing Fate to gain footing and begin riding on top of the drone. In the inner bowels of machine language, the AIs exchanged their versions of 'Good Fight' as EDI ceased Telepathic Jamming and banking around for a holding pattern. After taking a second to reload Bardiche, she jumped off and shot off towards Nanoha, barking her victory over the freed telepathic link.

* * *

'Click!'

[RELOAD!]

Nanoha, was having fun. A thought that had occurred to her when she realized she'd spent an entire magazine of magic cartridges and gotten exactly nowhere. Crash was, as Fate had informed her, sloppy, but very quick in his mind. For a rookie, he had insanely fast reflexes, and with that Olympian Armor, vast potential. At some point in this battle, she'd fallen into the habit of evaluating Crash's potential and thinking about ways to draw it further, going into her instructing habits such as baiting him with deliberate openings. Openings which she quickly realized, almost cost her the fight twice, and that Crash didn't need any artificial openings, since he was fully capable of making his own and finding her natural ones. And he claimed he wasn't a fighter?

Nanoha entertained the thought for a second of getting Crash reassigned to be trained with the Forwards back at RF6, if trained to full potential, he could hold a double A, triple A, or even S rank even with average power rating. But then she remembered that Crash was a Major, and as a squadron commander, that would be difficult to manage, especially if he fought her request.

The telepathic announcement of Fate's victory over EDI brought Nanoha out of her inner thoughts as she went through an automatic motion to parry one of Crash's close combat moves.

Knowing that it was only a matter of time before Fate would help her Tag Team Crash, she decided to let Fate know to hold back until the last possible moment. She wanted to test Crash against one more trick she'd neglected to use. How well would he work with restricted mobility?

* * *

Crash came about as Nanoha climbed away from him, firing a few shots at her as she retaliated in kind with a snap magic bolt of her own. He didn't plan on letting her get away to use her strongest attacks, not after he'd screwed up and gave her time to switch cartridge magazines.

However, just as he leaned forward to race at her, his feet jerked, nearly tumbling him in the air, had his torso not also suddenly jerked into place. After a moment he looked down to see his feet and his waist were trapped in glowing pink rings.

"A bind?!" Crash snapped in surprise. "Not good!"

Above and in front of him by about fifty meters, Nanoha brandished her staff like a rifle... spell circles forming around her as she prepared a finishing strike.

Crash needed time to think, to plan. There was no time though. It was just like when he got cornered by the cyborg. Any more power to defenses or to break these binds wouldn't help him, because any power shunted from the grav-drive system would make him too heavy to fly under his own power.

Wait a second... THAT'S IT!

"Battery Pop flares now!" he ordered in a rush. The plan was forming in his mind.

[HOWLER FLARES!]

'POPOPOPOP! POPOPOPOP!'

Sixteen miniature iron howls were flung into the air around him. A moment later as they began to drift earthwards, they crackled and detonated. Since he wasn't moving, the resulting turbulence and noise enveloped him instantly.

"On my mark, execute the following:" he bellowed over the noise.

Fifty meters away, Raising Heart was already glowing brightly as Nanoha watched the blinding cloud. A nice try she thought, but not good enough against her. Hiding a stationary target wouldn't change its position.

"DIVIIIIIIIIINE..."

'CRACK-SNAP! CRACK-SNAP!' two cartridges were discharged.

"Get ready!" Crash snapped. His HUD easily picked up the high ranking magical attack over the noise interference of his own flares.

"BUSTER!!!!"

'KABLAM!!!' Raising Heart's almost signature attack roared outwards in a stream of pink energy that would certainly overpower that Armor instantly. This fight was won.

"NOW!"

'THUM-BOOM!'

Nanoha heard the telltale sonic boom of his MACH Strafe just before her own attack struck home in the cloud of noise. Her finely honed combat sense told her that a flanking attack would be either behind or above. Even as she spun from her Divine Buster, the beam dying as she did so, an afterthought decided this next move would be from above, since gravity would make for some extra punch from any kind of melee attack.

Her hand was already above her head even as Crash cracked back into existence not ten feet directly above her, boots first.

A kick was easy to handle...

[PROTECTION POWERED]

...And her barrier snapped into existence.

'WHAM!'

Despite the barrier, that armor was REALLY heavy. She could feel her own altitude begin to drop in protest against such impressive mass. Not that she couldn't hold the barrier up all day, but trying to fly something this heavy wasn't exactly her idea of fun.

But either way, it should repel this kind of kick soon enough.

...

Wait a second, why hadn't he bounced off yet?

'STOMP!'

Nanoha looked up through her barrier. The armor exoskeleton wasn't kicking her, it was STANDING on her!

[LANCE RIFLE CONFIGURATION]

"Thanks for the firing platform!" Crash's filtered voice rang down to her. A moment later, the muzzle end of a magic rifle tapped against her barrier as he held it straight down at her.

'SNAP-SNAP-SNAP-HISSSSS...'

Three cartridges dropped past Nanoha's face as the rifle began building an attack charge. Crash, unseen by his opponent, gritted his teeth as it felt suddenly like someone had just put his entire body into a trash compactor.

The full extent of Crash's insane maneuver became clear in a heartbeat. The armor needed power directed to the Grav system to fly because of its extremely heavy mass. That shunted away power, which could be used for attack or defense. At the same time, he was using that very mass against her by forcing her to support him in mid air with her own barrier. By himself, his attacks wouldn't pierce a powered protection barrier. But with the strain of several hundred kilograms of heavy armor continuously fighting her barrier, and all his power directed for this next attack... If Nanoha were in charge of instructing him, he just passed this match. It was executed so well. Tactical options flashed through her head to counter. Drop her barrier and let him drop, but he could still fire on her in the few moments she'd need to keep it down. Throw him off to the side: but the damage was already done. Withstand the attack and counter with a follow-up? Acceptable. She COULD release her limiter and overpower him, but that would be cheating. Maybe in a real fight-

[FIRING!]

No more time to think about that. Battery's Lance Rifle fired. The high-energy discharge of a three cartridge magic cannon ignited at point blank range, creating a twelve-millimeter wide impact cross-section against the barrier with the force of a weak divine buster. The concussion blast from this, was far larger, enveloping them both in a shockwave that could be heard as a thunderclap for miles.

The barrier shattered into a thousand pink sparkles under the concentrated force and strain of the attack.

As she recoiled back to assess how to counter the follow-up, Crash tumbled through the air down at her, now no longer having a platform to stand on. But rather than attempt any attacks, he grabbed the staff component of Raising Heart and gave it a firm yank. Nanoha wasn't about to let go, and was pulled forward.

She found herself pulled right into Crash's insane idea for an inverted, mid air full body tackle.

Nanoha realized after a moment, just how strong the powered exoskeleton was in mere physical ability. That all her magic was completely useless when her opponent was physically right there pinning her arms to her side, and her ability to fly was no use against the full mass of this armor.

This was more impressive by the second.

But of course, one question remained.

"So now what?" she snapped over the roar of the wind as they plummeted. "If you let go, you're out of options."

"I'm not really sure!" Crash's voice filtered to her ears. "But I'm NOT planning on letting go! My best guess is that you get to discover first hand why they call me Crash! Off the top of my head, I think I can call this improv. attack..."

[TWO-THOUSAND FEET AND DROPPING, APPROACHING TERMINAL]

"The Fallen Angel Divine Body Slam!" he shouted. And Nanoha's only response was simply

'Eh!?'

The ground was suddenly very large, and growing larger very quickly below them. She could see people scattering out of the way...

"!!!!"

KABOOOM!!!!!

* * *

"Absolutely WICKED!" Fox blurted out. Hayate and Commander Roland exchanged glances and knowing smirks as the impact kicked up a massive cloud of dust.

"Now why didn't I ever think to try something like that?" Vita half muttered to herself.

"You have to be either completely insane, or completely stupid." Signum answered in a Stoic tone.

"That's Crash!" Fox grinned. The entire room suddenly wondered which one she meant, but Fox wasn't telling.

Back at the impact site, the dust finally settled enough for the two combatants to be seen. Crash was standing a few body lengths away from Nanoha. They both looked relatively unfazed from their landing.

"You cushioned our impact at the last second," Crash's filtered voice pointed out.

"That was a really dangerous move," she responded immediately. She hid her smirk behind a poker face, but the edge in her voice suggested she might actually be enjoying this little 'game' they were playing.

"I'm used to it," he added. "Care to draw, varmint?'

So he wanted a power duel, no way she'd lose this one.

"I'm game," as she raised the Raising Heart in front of her. A Spell pattern appeared around her as she prepared her assault.

Across the distance, Crash turned sideways, raising his left arm to neck level in front of him, and placing the Lance Rifle across it like a brace. They both held perfectly still. Into the silence, Battery called the remaining time for the battle.

[ONE MINUTE THIRTY]

A light gust of wind caught some of the remaining dust cloud, it was otherwise, dead silent.

Nanoha, more aggressive, acted first.

"DIVIIII-"

'CRACK-POW!!!!'

She was cut off as Raising Heart bucked in her hands. Her instinctive reaction to an unblocked hit was to prepare to fling up a barrier and start evading before she realized she hadn't been hit herself.

Crash quickly shifted his stance wider and went for direct grip on his weapon. There were a pair of snaps as it discharged two cartridges from the ejection port, and the muzzle on the Lance Rifle began to glow with a shot charge. He'd bought time to get a head start on his charging phase, but Nanoha knew the Raising Heart would be faster. She raised her staff for the attack.

[WARNING! CARTRIDGE CASE DAMAGE, EJECTING!]

That wasn't a message she'd ever heard from Raising Heart, and looked down in sudden shock to realize her Cartridge case was indeed severely scorched right on the front as it dropped uselessly to the ground. As she reached quickly for a spare, the cunning of this latest plan hit her.

Essentially: Using the sniper rifle characteristics and high velocity shot rounds at short range with a weak surprise shot to damage her primary source of heavy offensive power, and then using the downtime to get the advantage in the situation by getting his attack power up first! GENIUS! This fight was just FUN!

Nanoha quickly looked up as she brought her spare case towards Raising Heart, and her hawk-like senses noticed the finger twitch on the trigger.

[FLASH MOVE]

She dove aside as the Lance Rifle bucked from a heavy shot, which barely missed her, scoring a hit on the case in her hand instead and flinging it high into the air. The shot continued to 'lance' downrange before slamming into a storage building, blowing a hole in the side and detonating some, undoubtedly, expensive piece of equipment contained within'.

Nanoha recovered, knowing Crash would have momentarily exhausted his magic from that shot and prepared to rush him but stopped short when she noticed he wasn't in a fighting position. Instead, the Lance Rifle was down at the low ready, and he was looking upwards.

Following his glance towards a nearby long-range communications tower, she noticed the tiny fluttering spin of her yellow cartridge casing.

"Ahhh.... Mr. Murphy, I'd like to report a violation," Crash seemed to have apprehension in his voice.

* * *

Inside TICTOCC, Hayate looked on in shock as in a matter of seconds, several different bets and bids shot around the room.

* * *

The casing struck one of the Antenna arrays on its way down. It bounced into a cross bar nearby and ricocheted into a high power amplifier... bounced for a second, then spun into another lower cross bar half a story below. The casing shattered this time, spilling several bright red magic cartridges into the open air. Several of them bounced harmlessly into the open and dropped towards the ground. But one of them landed against a vertical wave guide tube and found its way into one of only a few small positive airflow gaps, and arced.

There was a small magical explosion, which flung what appeared to be high energy sparks across the tower, burning the steel framework and damaging its supports and stabilizing cables. The blast sparks hit ground level, setting off the casings that had landed there. The secondary shook the tower, which visibly dropped about a foot and jolted to the side. Nanoha looked on in awe as the Butterfly Effect continued its work. The communications tower strained against its damaged stabilizing cables, which systematically began to snap, weakest one first, with loud metallic 'twangs'. Finally, with a loud shrieking groan of stressed aluminum and sheered steel, the whole thing began to pitch over, right towards Crash.

"Oh, for the love of-"

'CRUNCH!!!!'

Nanoha blanched at the impact but dared to look. Interestingly enough however, Crash was standing, unhurt, right in the middle of a gap in the crossbars and tower equipment as the dust cleared.

"Is that all?" he asked nobody in particular in defiance.

Unseen by either of them, one last spark landed on Nanoha's previous damaged cartridge casing...

'KABOOOM!!!!'

Nanoha was knocked flat by the shockwave of uncontrolled magical energy as it incinerated a block of signal boosters and multiplexing components that were roughly placed mid-tower. After the blast died down a moment later, she gave Crash completely perplexed look.

"What was that?!" she shouted.

"Typical event for me," he shrugged, noting the blinking red countdown timer on his heads up display. "Oh well, at least I survived the length of the match, does that mean I won?"

Nanoha stopped gaping, and then smiled.

"Actually, Checkmate."

"Huh?" Crash blinked.

-BEEP-

'Clack'

The Axe shaped head of Bardiche came to a gentle rest right across his shoulder.

[DO NOT COUNT ON IT SIR]

For a moment Crash just stared at the 'eye' of the device next to him, then twisted to see Fate standing on a warped support beam directly behind him.

"Aww... I can't believe I forgot about you," he grumbled. "Where the hell did you come from!?"

"I've been here since you tried your tackle," Fate responded with her own smirk.

* * *

"TIME!" Roland snapped into the microphone.

"Awwww... MAN!" Fox whined. A moment after gathering her winnings, she lost them again to the previous bets.

* * *

Bardiche beeped its affirmative immediately.

[GAME SET!]

In the wreckage, battery beeped in confirmation.

[PUT OUT]

Crash looked down.

"Huh? Put out? Put out what?" He glanced to Nanoha and Fate, they shrugged.

Crash suddenly realized a typical Battery joke might follow.

'POPOPOPOP! POPOPOPOP!'

Sixteen Howler Flares flew into the air, and both girls jumped in surprise. A moment later, the scene was chaos.

* * *

Don was not pleased.

"-in the high name of all that is fuckin' holy were you thinking firing off that level shot within the exclusion zone, I've never seen such irresponsibility in all my fucking years you filthy piece of shit, that Comm tower-"

If it weren't so serious, it would have been funny. Fate, Nanoha, Hayate, Signum, Vita, Shamal, and Rein had all visibly turned several shades of purple. Directly in front of them, Crash was standing like a statue at parade rest, as the flood of profanities and obscenities that poured out of the senior mechanics mouth washed over him like an acid tide. This was reinforced by the extremely LARGE vehicle wrench Don was waiving dangerously close to his face the entire time.

Fox was nearby, fingers conveniently stuck in her ears as she kept a blank look on her own face.

Somewhere in all of this ranting, Don managed to bring the point across that the communications tower was expensive to repair, that it took a long time for him to get it fine tuned, and that Crash was an irresponsible... well, let's just say idiot.

"And I thought I was harsh on people," Vita muttered to herself, the disbelieving look growing on her face as her mouth twitched a little more. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Rein was starting to sway a little. Truth be told, Rein was taking this a little harder. Her database of languages made it so she recognized many more of the various swear words as Don continued to belt them out in about seventeen different languages, from local standard, to Belken, to Russian. Finally her eyes just went into swirls and she went completely blank to the scene.

The torrent of words that would have made a sailor blush and a drill sergeant proud continued in front of them for another good five minutes before it looked like he was ready to wrap it up.

"-you understand me son?!"

The sudden halt in the noise pollution almost made everyone jump. Crash snapped a salute, not daring to look down at the shorter man with the wrench.

"Yessir!"

"Good!" Don snapped. Then turned to the ladies with a grim smile.

"I'm sorry you ladies had to hear that," he tipped his hat with his wrench before turning, the look of rage returning to his face as he did so.

"GOD DAMMIT!" a final snarl escaped him. "I want a maintenance team out here, and I want their asses here, YESTERDAY!"

And he stalked away like a thunderhead threatening a lightning strike, passing the base commander, who paused in his tracks to give an incredulous look before grimacing as he approached the group.

"Double S Don," he shook his head. "Welcome to The McGreggor Archipelago: We're INSANE!"

For a moment he thought the ladies had gone into shock, Nanoha was still stuck on 'gape and stare' mode, and Fate seemed to have zoned out completely. Rein was pretty much passed out on Hayate's shoulder. It was Signum who finally smirked and let out her own comment.

"Where was all that firepower when we took on the cradle?"

Crash relaxed a little before waiving his hand in front of Fox's face. She took her fingers out of here ears and looked around as if expecting Don to pounce on her. Then she cupped her hands in front of her mouth.

"ALL CLEAR!" She shouted.

Nobody had noticed until now, as several mechanics, engineers, and other various test staff all seemed to pop up out of shadows and from around corners to continue their work. Don's wrath was just legendary, and nobody wanted to be in the line of fire when he was in Double S mode.

"That's still a rank down from his most angry," Crash said as he let out a sigh. "If he has magical potential, his attack is probably Angry Breaker, and it's probably rated at Triple S, plus plus plus..."

The Aces finally began to recover, Nanoha laughing unsteadily, while fate seemed to be coming out of some kind of flashback of her own.

"Is he always like that?" Hayate asked?

"Only when you break stuff," the base commander replied.

"How often is that?"

"All the time," Crash chimed in, a comical smirk forming on his face.

The aces looked at him in complete shock.

"Who's up for lunch?" he asked as if he didn't notice. "Getting yelled at is hungry work."

"OH! ME!" Rein recovered instantly.


	5. Chapter 5: Dominos In Motion

"I really thought I was toast for a while there," Crash told Cooper as they made their way to the DIFAC. "I mean the attack pretty much shredded everything around me, but that defense setup was just insane. That Wedge Shield was a nice touch, where'd you get that idea?"

"It was actually Don's idea," Cooper shrugged. "He was the one who worked on practical engineering aspects and said that altering the designs of the magical defenses away from the traditional round and triform shield designs would probably yield results similar physical material structures."

"You're kidding," Crash gaped. "Double Spanners helped design the stuff he KNEW I'd be messing with?"

"He doesn't hate you as much as he'd like everyone to think," Cooper smirked. "You just piss him off with your brand of luck, and he lacks a good outlet."

"Coulda' fooled me," Crash responded with a shrug. "I think today's session was a record for me... I'd never seen him that red before."

"Meh," Cooper rolled his eyes. "Speaking of records..."

Cooper dropped back a few paces to the Ladies that were following close behind, giving Fate, a sudden, overly friendly slap on the shoulders. "Nice job breaking that airspeed record!"

Fate resisted a stumble from the surprise hand to her back. Cooper may be an overweight engineer unfit for combat, but large men can still throw weight around.

"It's not really anything special," she denied. "I burned through all my cartridges to achieve that velocity for only a few seconds."

"You maintained velocity though," Cooper grinned back. "The Bardiche-"

[ 'BARDICHE'... NOT 'THE BARDICHE'... SIR.]

"Sorry," Cooper apologized to the triangular core on the necklace. "Bardiche managed to get the barrier shape down and increase your flight efficiency before the cartridge ran out. You were actually flying on your own power before you used your barrier as a brake."

"I'm not sure I fully understand," Fate replied. Well, actually, she did... To an extent. Aerodynamics Barriers kept the wind off a mage in flight like a windshield on a car. What she wasn't getting was why exactly the shape made her faster.

"Well, most airborne mages can only achieve mach one at their best level sprints or steep dives," Cooper continued. "They just don't have the power reserves to break the sound barrier and maintain it, so barrier shaping was never given much consideration, unlike aircraft frames. However, you have more energy reserves which gives you a better..." Cooper paused to look for a word.

"A better thrust to weight ratio!" In front, Crash rolled his eyes a little. Here we go.

"So with the extra power, you have the brute force required, but you're still using a sub-sonic barrier shape, which produces a high drag coefficient and makes you waste a significant amount of energy flying."

Fate opened her mouth to speak. Cooper didn't let her.

"But then here's the fun part. A magical barrier is the perfect aerodynamic frame, it's as strong as it needs to be, can flex, never experiences stress fatigue over time, and can take any shape that can be visualized, or calculated by a computer... instantly. Now as you approach the mach four barrier, air pressure build up from conventional barrier designs means the drag rises significantly with every square inch of forward surface area. But if you take hypersonic forms and apply them to barrier shapes, you can create an aerodynamic surface that cuts through the air better and reduces the drag by a significant portion. It's the same concept Crash's system uses, but EDI managed to calculate your barrier functions and review them with Cherry and Bardiche..."

Fate tried to speak again, but Cooper was on a roll.

"Now, combine your superior thrust to weight ratio, and this barrier, and you are essentially cutting through the fluid... because at hypersonic the air is so dense it's more like going through water, well... PLASMA really, but that's not the point... What it means is that you get more speed for less energy. Now, since a barrier also has a perfect surface that is not susceptible to frictional forces, you also don't have to worry about surface heating in high speed flight, so the laminar flow around the barrier-"

"You're going to bore the poor girl to death at this rate!" Key suddenly snapped from under Cooper's shirt. "Do us all a favor and cut the Fluid Dynamics lecture."

"I... don't mind," Fate responded to the small device, Cooper tried to form a response but Key was determined to shut him up and keep it that way.

"Oh please girl," Key responded. "You give him even a little incentive and he'll talk your ear off all night and into the next day... a week from now. Cooper loves the sound of his own voice. If it's anything he loves more it's robots. Combine the two and he'd probably bring the TSAB down just like Al Hazred!"

"I'd listen to the device," Crash broadcasted from the lead position in the group. "I don't think I've managed to stay awake through a single one of his lectures."

"You'd rather be getting your ass blown up," Cooper responded with a smirk.

"You'd be the one pressing the button," Crash rolled his eyes.

"Airheads," Fox muttered from slightly ahead of Nanoha.

"Agreed," Vita muttered back.

"Speaking of Air," Cooper brushed the remarks off... Rolling right from Fate to Nanoha without so much as stopping.

"Here we go again," Key seemed to almost mutter herself from under his shirt.

"Sixty Thousand Feet up!" He smirked. "Mage Combat at extreme altitude, nothing quite like it!"

"It's nothing as good as what Fate did," Nanoha tried here own attempt to shrug off the extra attention. "It's not like I broke any high altitude flight records. Those were set at a hundred thousand feet years ago."

"Maybe," Cooper shrugged. "But you were still up there, flying toe to toe with EDI. You don't find mages that can do something like that all too often."

"And for good reason," Shamal interjected. "She suffered acute Hypoxia from the low oxygen level at that altitude and nearly passed out. That's a long nasty drop."

Shamal had been doting over Nanoha and Fate almost since they had finished Don's dressing down of Crash, double checking their hearing and ensuring Nanoha wasn't suffering any adverse effects, especially after witnessing Nanoha caught in several moderate explosions.

"That's something else I wanted to look into," Cooper stated. "If I could get a full system Log from Raising Heart before you leave, I want to see if I can do something about the barrier jacket system maintaining a functional oxygen envelope at high altitude.

At the back of the group, Roland was having a semi-private chat with Hayate.

"-performed well above my expectations," the General finished. Hayate nodded.

"The vehicle certainly performed excellently for the armaments it had. But I liked the level of coordination and adherence to teamwork it had. One of the biggest issues those at HQ will have, will be if they can TRUST the machine AI enough to give it a real assignment."

"Indeed," Roland nodded. "If the pilots the aircraft will be assisting don't trust it to keep their well being in mind along side the mission, a certain level of combat coherency will be lost. The MADCAP displayed quite a level of both mission priority, as well as an aspect of keeping its own wingman out of hot water. I normally only expect that of well integrated units, not from an AI the first time on the job."

"I personally liked how it showed restraint," Hayate shrugged. "When Nanoha was barely conscious after the high altitude fight, EDI made no attempts to finish her off, despite how ensuring she was unconscious would pretty much assure them a successful mission. It may be assigned a task as drone hunter for now. But should it go into regular use, it could see security operations or hostility suppression actions on some of the remote worlds. A very firm control on the escalation of the use of force "

"You really think that'll buy them a little more?" Roland asked, arching an eyebrow.

"We try to catch the troublemakers in one piece," she smiled. "They'll be more than happy if their new toy can wear white gloves to a fight."

"So what's your word on the subject?" the General finally asked. Hayate smiled big.

"I like it, keeps my friends safer. I'll ask Nanoha and Fate about their personal opinions after we've seen the performance logs themselves and if they agree, you've got yourself an Endorsement from us."

Anything else the General might have said was cut off at this Point. Crash made his way up to the double doors of the Difac and gave them a push inwards. The pilot only made it about two steps into the cafeteria before he was nearly blown off his feet by an earth shaking cheer.

Nanoha and Fate came to a dead stop as Crash literally jumped in surprise. Something they hadn't seen him do. Only a few seconds later, they were swarmed with a number of support staffers and engineers.

"That was totally awesome!" one of them managed to say.

"You went like this, she went like that, and then you were just GONE!" another interrupted.

"And then you brought out that huge sword!" must have been directed at Fate.

"The top of the sky with that jet!" yet another of the many engineers, directed at Nanoha.

Nanoha and Fate were used to a little fame from their work. But they'd never gotten swarmed like this before. Crash seemed nearly freaked out however. He always seemed more infamous than famous, even among people he knew so well like all the Engineers here. But now they were up in his face like they'd never been, talking faster than he could catch, and asking questions he couldn't answer.

"How fast were you going?"

"How did you escape those binds?"

"What went through your mind when you were trying that long range shot?"

"Which one are you going to sleep with tonight?"

If Crash could figure out who asked the last question, he'd have someone to punch in the nose and make himself an opening. Judging by the way hairs started standing up on the back of his neck, he absentmindedly guessed the girls heard it too. They were only a foot away after all.

The rest of the group managed to make their way into the door and could hardly believe how the three were the center of one big, as Roland called it, 'gaggle.' The word was actually a composite, but the General thought the extra explicative that went on the end wasn't needed in the company of ladies.

"What the hell is going on?" he squinted in confusion. Hayate glanced around, trying to see over people's shoulders, then pointed discreetly at the far wall.

The large screen that sat in the center showed a rather high quality detail replay of the fight. It showed Crash and Nanoha in a steep dive... obviously in the last few minutes of the replay.

"Lime." the General nodded in understanding.

A short man with a clipboard managed to squeeze his way through the crowd and pushed his way clear to the exit. Roland bit down on his urge to let his old U.S. military training take over and chew him out over his rather impolite nature. Instead, he'd just slow him down a little.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry Logan?"

"It's too noisy in here," the short man stated. "I can't work in noise..."

Roland shrugged. "We might have a party in here before long, any excuse for a party as they say."

"I've got to head over to D complex and take an inventory," Logan continued. "I want to ensure before next inspection comes along that the VA-111 Shkvals are all accounted for, and that nobody's been tampering with them."

"Very well then," Roland nodded. Not one to keep from very important duties such as Disposal Site management. "Carry on then."

And Logan was gone.

"Who was that?" Hayate asked.

"Disposal Logistics manager," the General stated, noting Vita and Fox had vanished from sight. "He's not the sociable type. Prefers books and keeps to himself. Makes him very good at managing inventory, but doesn't deal with crowds too well."

As he finished the sentence, he spotted the two smaller girls, having used the opportunity when everyone rushed Crash to jump to the front of the food line, where Marylin was serving them with a pleasant smile.

"What's a Shkval?" Hayate continued. Roland shrugged and answered.

"Russian made nuclear torpedo."

After a long silent (relatively speaking) pause, he finally turned to Hayate. She'd lost some coloration. It took a few seconds before the General realized why and quickly waved it aside.

"Oh don't worry about that, the nuclear materials were removed and shipped off world for disposal as soon as they got here. I oversaw that myself."

Hayate seemed to relax, a little. Roland continued.

"Your position probably doesn't appreciate the amount of stuff that gets transferred to this base on a constant basis," he stated. "Otherwise, the Disposal site would have shut down fifty years ago when the last if the original MidChildan munitions were finished off. Despite the hush-hush that's been kept, it's a well known fact Earth 'exports' more munitions a month than it's Non-Administered status would have people believe. Russia especially. Their security on materials was never the best, but magic using dimensional arms dealers have a field day with it. Then the TSAB catch them, and all the junk has to go to disposal facilities. I think we've got a stash of AK-47s over on D-Complex big enough to supply a brigade-sized unit. If the Russians only knew how interdimensionally popular the Kalashnikov was..."

He sighed, shaking his head.

"Still, occasionally someone gets a nuke through, and that has to be dealt with. The Shkvals have a puny ten-kiloton warhead, but that's enough to rip a city apart. The torpedoes and their detonation mechanisms are scheduled for a recorded detonation disposal two weeks from now. That'll be sent straight to command. But inspection's in a week, so they need to be documented and easy to find."

Roland noted Vita and Fox already sitting in a corner, eating and talking while pointing out items on the screen, now starting another replay. At this rate, they'd be done before anyone else even got to the line. Judging from the way Crash's face looked, and the huge blushes on Nanoha and Fate's faces, the situation was coming close to getting out of hand.

It didn't seem possible, but the ear splitting whistle the General emitted when he stuck his fingers in his mouth managed to halt any and all conversation in the room almost instantly. After several seconds of absolute silence, which Roland passed a long and calculated glare around the group, he spoke.

"This is a dining facility, not a circus sideshow. " He began. "Though if you so desire attractions, I'm sure I could come up with a little entertainment while I prepare some smoked meat for Marilyn's grill."

He waited a calculated three seconds to let the meaning permeate.

"So if that's what you want, keep up the gaggle... otherwise. Disappear."

The girls had never seen a room clear so fast outside of combat exercises. The General's punishment routine, known only as a 'smoking' was one of the most infamous and unpleasant experiences on the entire island. Crash's bulging biceps could attest to many a time where he'd crossed the General, much as he'd done earlier that morning. What had only moments before been a near screaming crowd of people, had thinned out into those who were still eating their lunch, a few engineers, and kitchen staff.

"Works every time," Roland smirked, brushing his way past Crash and over to the serving line where Marilyn was already starting a tray.

"The usual General?" she asked.

"Go light today," he shrugged. "I'm probably going to be on my feet for the rest of the day."

Marilyn smiled as she handed the base commander a plate consisting of a high protein meal. Roland wasn't sure what exactly it was, but he was sure it was MidChilda's local version of chicken. Cooper was up next, having only enough patience to let what was essentially his 'boss' get food first. Marilyn glared at him a few seconds as she triple loaded his plate with the heaviest food on the line.

"You really should cut back sweetie," she tried. It was the same speech every day.

"You don't cultivate THIS kind of presence by cutting back," he smirked, patting his bulging belly.

"What you're cultivating is cholesterol, sugar," Marilyn responded evenly. "If you don't start cutting it back, I'll start cutting you back. Here in the middle of nowhere, I control the flow of food."

"You can try," Cooper grinned. "But I have ways of getting around your food blockades."

Marilyn shook her head as Cooper wandered away to sit down and watch the replay. Then she turned to the pint sized one who was staring through the separation glass, slavering away. Reinforce Zwei had zipped sharply in front of Crash at the last second when she realized just how diverse the selection was.

"See anything you like sweetie?" she asked.

"Heh, probably everything on display," Crash laughed, looming up behind the Unison. "You're not HUNGRY are you?"

Rein turned quickly and smiled in the cutest fashion possible, her eyes twinkling like tiny stars. Crash stood up and laughed.

"Careful now," he stated. "Watch that appetite or you'll end up looking like Cooper."

"NOT POSSIBLE!" Cooper piped up across the room. "It takes dedicated practice to achieve this level of perfection."

"Yeah, perfection... Whatever." It was Key, barely audible under his shirt. Crash rolled his eyes and turned back to Rein, reaching down to poke her in the belly.

"Just watch out, or your stomach could swell up and go B-"

BOOM!!!

Nanoha and Fate, who were bringing up the Rear, jumped backwards as the spot immediately surrounding Crash erupted in sparks and smoke. Everyone else in the Room, turned around in their spots to see what had happened.

Crash stumbled back a step, his hair standing straight up. Rein was in similar shape, about ten feet away, caught by a condiment packet tower at the end of the food line and cushioned by packets of various sauces Roland hadn't quite figured out whether to call Ketchup, or cocktail sauce.

After a few seconds of total silence, the shattered light socket above Crash sparked, and the florescent bulb dropped to the ground and shattered. Those inspecting the spectacle turned back to their food as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.

"What just happened?!" Hayate asked in a near panic as she rushed over to check on Rein.

"I think..." Crash began, coughing a little. "I think that was a failed Unison-In attempt."

Nanoha visibly screwed her face up as she twisted her head to the side.

"Eh?"

Hayate reached down and pulled Rein from the Cushion of packet sauces, cradling her like a newborn kitten.

"Are you okay?"

"No mama, that meatball was plenty spicy. Can I have another?"

Hayate sighed. Even blasted silly, all this little one could think about at times was food.

"What makes you think that was a Unison failure?" Fate asked.

"It was definitely a rejection," Signum stated. Up until now, she'd been completely silent ever since they'd left TICTOCC. Shamal was there right beside her. "There's no mistaking that feeling of incompatible forces conflicting with each other like that."

Nanoha looked from Signum to Crash, her face still a mask of confusion.

"But he didn't DO anything," Fate stated the obvious.

"Yes he did," Signum stated stoically. "He touched her."

Fate resisted the urge to match Nanoha's blank look. Signum, never the less, saw it and crossed her arms, leaning her head down as she often did when she was revealing what should have been simple common fact.

"Are you forgetting she's still a DEVICE?"

Ding! Signum literally could count the two seconds it took for Nanoha and Fate to mutually achieve the same revelation, just from the looks on their faces. As one, the two aces turned and looked directly at Crash, who was busy patting his clothes down, trying to shake any glass bits and florescent powder off of himself.

"Maybe you two missed it all this time," Signum continued. "But he's been very careful about what he touches. You can read it if you watch his body language and posture. He doesn't touch anything, period. He doesn't brush walls, he doesn't randomly kick things like small rocks, not a random tap or motion out of place."

Of course, SIGNUM would notice something like that. Crash put up the manner of a laid back fighter jock, but the Knight had spent more time watching and learning than the rest of the group. It was habit. She'd picked up on it early on, his seemingly random warnings, even the offhand comment from SkyEye when they'd arrived. The Comm tower incident and now this only served to reinforce her conclusion.

"I have a chronic case of never ending Murphy's Law," Crash stated into her internal monologue. "Nearly everything I touch finds a way to break. Why do you think I'm good at my job? What can go wrong, has a bad habit of doing so around me. And it's almost ALWAYS related to anything I touch... like a Unison device."

Crash tried again to flatten his hair a little, failing to do so. After a short moment he turned and held his index finger out to the metal rail of the food line.

"What would you say?" he asked. "Twelve Volts?" And touched his finger to the metal.

'POP!'

"You just ask yourself, 'What could POSSIBLY go wrong'," he continued. "And then when you have your answer, apply that as the most likely thing to happen the moment I touch it."

"It must be terrible living like that." Nanoha had gone right into Pity Mode from Confused Mode.

"Naaaaaah," Crash waved her pity away. "If anything, quiet girl over here-"

Signum silently objected to the nickname...

"-Called it a minute ago. I simply don't touch anything. Plus, all these years, I've kinda' learned to spot what I could break before I break it."

He sighed as Hayate walked over to them, Rein in her arms.

"Of course, it's real easy to forget a Unison is TECHNICALLY equipment... My bad."

Crash resisted the urge to follow it all up by patting Rein on the head, out of fear of another... Reaction. Instead, he opted to turn to the food line where Marilyn had a rather smug look, her ladle down by her side as she rested her hands on her hips.

"I'm sure Marilyn can tell you all about it."

"Certainly can sugar," she nodded. "You just stay out of my kitchen and everyone stays happy..."

Nanoha laughed unevenly at what was hidden behind the words before the head cook looked at Crash with a warm smile.

"Good work with the simulated battle honey. You threw everything you had into it, even if I wanted to dump a vat of hot cooking oil on your for that wet sand stunt you pulled."

"Oh come on Ma!" Crash sighed. "I was in a mock BATTLE! I'm SUPPOSED to do mean stuff like that."

"Indeed you were," Marilyn nodded. "That along with how everything balanced out is why I'm letting you off. But if I EVER, catch wind that you did that to a nice young lady EVER AGAIN... I'll tan your hide so badly you'd WISH you were in the middle of LIVE COMBAT."

And then she flipped right back over to friendly as if the previous exchange never happened.

"Here's your food sweetie, go eat up, you earned it."

Crash took a double large plate, covered in a high carb meal the likes of which even Cooper would be slightly jealous, and wandered quickly away with an obligatory 'Thanks Ma!'. He found a spot across from Fox and Vita near the monitor, and started watching the replay around the time they began the fight in earnest.

Nanoha and Fate received similarly large plates of food, active mages burned a hell of a lot more energy than the typical staffer, and Marilyn knew the metabolism of an active mage quite well. After receiving their food, they both tried to thank her, but faltered... unable to decided how to address her.

"Call me Ma," she stated. "Everyone around here does."

That resolved, they moved on and allowed Hayate to get her plate. Almost the moment she did so, Rein, rather predictably, sat bolt upright and took in the welcoming aroma of what the General assumed was the TSAB match for Spaghetti.

"You took quite a zap sweetie," Marilyn cooed. "Here, this will make it all better."

Rein received her own plate... well, actually, it was a tiny one-eighth size Jell-O desert plate, but it was her own plate none-the-less. And it was piled high, comparatively to Rein, with 'spaghetti', and only slightly unwieldy in the hands of the Unison. The improvised utensils were interesting as well. It looked as if Marilyn had improvised them rather handily from a child's doll set. When and where would remain a mystery however.

After Hayate and Rein, came the remainder, Shamal and Signum, who had only moderate portions, having done virtually nothing up to this point aside from looking sharp. Vice managed to show up with a mechanic earlier and was already finished, sitting in a corner watching the replay.

Having found their own spot, Nanoha and Fate immediately began eating their meals rather quickly, pausing only to watch the respective moments of the fight they were not present for, or to watch the opponent's perspective.

Nanoha seemed particularly interested when Crash tried to use the Hyperlance Extension shot to take Fate out at extreme range. When the shot was fired, extra statistics displayed from analyzed data put the shot above nine hundred meters a second. She imagined a dozen ways to have Raising Heart duplicate the simplistic mechanical principle that fired the Hyperlance Extension. Having a beam that could hit farther away, all that much faster would allow her to pluck targets off all the quicker. Or perhaps make a homing version of the shot... That's it, a nine hundred meter a second homing shot. Dodge THIS! It made her grin, and almost start chuckling out loud.

Fate noticed after a few seconds Nanoha was laughing to herself, and quickly began to sweat... Oh god, she didn't want that toy for herself did she? Nanoha held the record for longest range direct shots in the TSAB, all she needed now was a way to make them hit even farther away and faster. However, she found the window in the corner of the replay showing a Crash's Visor HUD Point of View quite fascinating. Even as Crash was busy getting his ass handed to him in their hand to hand duel, she watched as the bracket that identified her changed color to indicate threat level, and took stock of the small indicators next to it displaying relevant data.

"Oh god, I think I pissed her off..."

Nanoha buried her face in her arm to keep from laughing outright, causing Fate to simply turn red in embarrassment. Those in the room had caught on to the spectacle in Crash's HUD and were also barely containing their own laughter. Fate decided after a moment, that despite not really feeling it, she DID look rather pissed off as she hoisted Bardiche up in its Zanber Form.

'THUMP!'

Suddenly, all laughter in the room ceased. The girls took a second to realize the deathly silence that had come over the room, yet the strange feeling of a dark aura finally drew their attention to the entrance.

Don stood, hard hat still on, right at the entrance. He seemed preoccupied with something in front of him... Actually, it was the glass and shattered light bulb on the floor in front of the food line. After a long, almost scary pause, many in the room dreading a repeat of earlier, Don took a slow, deep breath and walked over the damage, and quickly exchanged quiet words with Marilyn. A quick dart of his head in Crash's direction gave them a good idea of the conversation before he scowled. Before he could say anything though, Marilyn suddenly shook her ladle at him, speaking quietly with a look on her face that was most certainly not offering him a five star dinner. The head mechanic seemed to bite lip to prevent whatever he wanted to say from coming out, but he relaxed and tipped his hat a little, then accepted a plate of food from her. Apparent disaster averted, attention returned to the replay, now matching Nanoha's high altitude dogfight with the Madcap.

"Clunk!"

Nanoha and Fate jumped as a tray came down right in front of them. Don joined it a second later.

"I hope you don't mind an old angry man like myself joining you," he stated, almost apologetically.

They both shook their heads quickly, and he smirked in what seemed to be the antithesis of the personality they'd seen him display, then sat down.

"I don't like to be mean," he stated, grabbing up his fork and taking a bite. "It's just that I work very hard around here. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who knows what he's doing."

"I bet that can be really hard sometimes," Nanoha nodded. Don instantly recognized that she was 'keeping her distance' in the conversation, and simply attacked a piece of meat.

"Look ladies," he stated after a few more bites. "I'm an engineer, and that means I solve problems."

He took a fork and stabbed some of his food rather aggressively.

"Not problems like, 'what is romance', no. That would fall under the perfue of your conundrums of philosophy."

As he said that, his eyes drifted to a small fly that was attracted to the aroma of their meals, then snapped back up to them.

"I solve practical problems," he continued. "For example... how do you keep some nasty little piece of filth from ruining hours of hard work?"

For a few seconds, the senior mechanic's eyes went back and forth between Nanoha and Fate.

"The answer," he began.

WHOOSH-WHAM!!

Both aces jumped as his arm came up fast, and then slammed hard on the table, holding a large fly swatter he'd somehow managed to produce from seemingly thin air. The rest of the room had frozen again at the loud report, only to go back to eating after spotting the reason.

"Use the right tool."

Don lifted the fly swatter up. Inspecting its matted surface to note the rather flat remains of the little pest that had been attempting to enjoy what would now be its last meal. With an idle swish, he shoved the fly swatter out of sight and reached up, pushing his hard hat up and pulling a tiny little spray bottle out while fishing a small white cloth towel out of a pocket.

"And if that don't work," he continued, spraying the spot he'd struck a few times. "Invent a better tool."

Don quickly wiped the spot he was spraying and stuck the stuff he'd used back where they came from. One couldn't tell at first glance how much he really had on him.

"But Crash is different," he stated, shaking his head as he returned to eating. "No matter what tools I use, what I make, how much I plan. He foils any attempt to stay ahead of the game."

Starting to understand how the engineer felt, the aces began to relax a little and resume eating, feeling just a slight sympathy now that they had witnessed enough to make sense of it.

"I don't hate the boy," Don continued. "But I hate wasted effort, and that boy invariably leads to more hours of wasted effort than I thought physically possible in one day. Do you know how many times I have had to change the card readers in the test facilities before we simply switched over to using personnel to watch the entrances?"

Nanoha expected him to give them the answer, but instead he skipped onto another train of thought.

"It's extremely frustrating waking up each day and wondering what you'll have to clean up after this time, and how much it's going to cost in time, effort, and money, to deal with. If I wanted to be a janitor, I needn't have worked so hard to get this position."

After another bite he looked Nanoha square in the eyes.

"And that leaves me a bit grouchy," he stated evenly. "I'd like you to understand, that even if I look ready to kill somebody, I can't really say it's anyone's fault, not even the Boy's. And I don't mean anyone any ill will. I'm just good at yelling, it's generally the only way I've ever been able to get anyone to listen and perform as I need them to. As I've said... the right tool."

More silence. Dominated by the engineer quickly going through a portion of meat. The one-sided conversation, seemingly over, the girls resumed their focus on the replay again. At this point, it seemed to be around when EDI and Crash had retreated. They listened to the Dialogue as the pair went over their combat options, having only just missed Crash realizing they weren't fighting top level. A muted screech announced when EDI began jamming.

"Simple but effective," the girls heard Don state. Turning, they noted he was watching the events unfold with an analytical eye. "The more complicated a countermeasure, the more intricate a plan, the more complex the design, the more things you have that can go wrong."

Nanoha nodded. "Simple plans are the best ones. Too many pieces and it becomes impossible to manage it all."

"But they should have waited," the Engineer continued. "That stunt would have been more effective if they waited until they reengaged."

"It didn't serve them any good aside from give us a headache," Nanoha shrugged.

"It stopped you colder than dry ice in a tank of liquid Nitrogen," Don responded.

"He's right," Fate cut in. "If they waited and struck with their sensory deprivation attacks AND used that jamming at the same time. The combined effect of being deaf, blinded, and having a screaming fog in our own minds would be enough to give them the time to mop the floor with us even with the sloppiest moves."

"Exactly," Don nodded. "But Crash lacks experience in combat. He knows how to watch his own bacon and pick out holes in things, but he lacks effective planning skills. I can't say I blame him. A plan book would probably burst into flames after he managed a rough sketch... just to spite him."

And with that, he stood up rather suddenly, taking a now empty tray with him. Don had eaten rather fast, but from the looks of his gate as he walked away, he had plenty left to do. After depositing his tray on the conveyer that took it into the kitchen, he quickly made his way over to General Roland, where he muttered something to the base commander. Roland looked up for a second, then nodded solemnly.

Crash looked up from his half eaten plate as Don made a B-line for the spot he was sitting in across from Vita and Fox. Great, just what he needed, chew out number two for the day. However, instead of coming to yell at him, the mechanic stopped next to Fox.

"I'd like you in the test hangar at thirteen thirty," he stated curtly, sparing only a twitch-like glance at Crash.

Fox nodded as she tried to finish swallowing the last of her own food. Don quickly turned away, fishing a notepad seemingly out of nowhere and marking something down as he walked past the glass pile on the floor, then vanished as quickly as he'd come.

After a few seconds silence, Crash finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I survive one more day! Phew, I thought he was going to blow a fuse when he came in, I've always managed not to bust something after he's lost it once."

"Don't be dumb," Fox rolled her eyes. "Everyone knows Marilyn has him on a tight leash anywhere NEAR the DIFAC. If he blew a fuse in here, she'd starve the temper right out of him."

"Good way to do it too," Vita suppressed a chuckle. "I remember once about seven years ago, I made the mistake of pissing Hayate off, and she sent me to bed without dinner, never made the same mistake again."

For a few seconds Crash nodded with a sly smile, then suddenly he paused and his face went blank. Seven years didn't compute right.

"How old are you again?" he asked.

"I'm," Vita began, then she furrowed her brow, pausing for several seconds. "I can't remember, older than you at least."

Crash scratched his head as he gave her a solid once-over.

"You say that, but my brain can't seem to add it up at all."

"I get that a lot," Vita shrugged. "Hey, who's the Twerp? Where's your momma kid? Hey shrimp!"

Vita smirked.

"But then I simply tell them who I am, and if they don't want to believe that well..."

She leaned forward, reaching up and grabbing the collar of her shirt as she did so. Crash instantly put both hands on the table and was about to catapult himself backwards when Vita pulled a necklace up into view. A tiny hammer shaped object glinted back at him.

"...I let them argue with Graf Eisen instead."

With a deft flick, she brought Graf Eisen out of storage mode, and displayed the magical war hammer proudly to the test pilot. Deep in the back of his mind, Crash noted the piston styled cartridge loader the hammer had, and recalled just how much punishment in the tests it took to cause it to fail so many months before. The answer was 'A-FUCKING-LOT', at which he involuntarily gulped at the prospects of what that meant in the hands of the deceptively young body before him.

"There was this one time some moron tried to kidnap me," she continued, lowering Graf Eisen.

"Probably some pedophile or other sick maniac thinking I was just 'some kid'. We'll probably never know, he ended up in the psychiatric ward of a hospital after I taught him a lesson."

True to the word of course, the man had been admitted with two broken ribs, a concussion, all his limbs shattered, and was screaming non-stop about killer bunny rabbits in red dresses with sledgehammers coming to finish him off, and had been that way for at least four years. Crash's mental image of the situation wasn't too different, though he was having trouble identifying with just how much brutality could reduce someone to a gibbering paranoid shell that once claimed to be human. Either way, the prospects of the answer only reinforced his previous conclusion.

Fox noted the smug look on Vita's face as Crash's own face went through a series of easily visible emotional responses as he mulled over what he'd seen and heard. Deciding he wasn't paying attention for once, she nudged Vita slightly and spoke quickly under her breath.

"Don't overdo the big stick routine, he's an idiot and he'll stick to it."

Vita nodded, but continued to bask in the aura of someone who'd just been humbled. It seemed the two girls had quickly started to get along after Fox's little display on Cooper earlier that day. Probably because they connected better than their abrasive personalities would seem. In the middle of this, Vita managed a double take.

"What routine?"

Fox nearly spat out her drink as she downed it.

* * *

General Roland's office, as best as Hayate could put it, was something of a museum display of his past achievements. This was almost completely controversial to the rather bland knobbed door he had for it. In fact, his office seemed to be one of the less advanced in the building, where as most other offices had the fancy high-tech TSAB doors. Roland simply thought the old style door had a friendlier look to it.

However, almost immediately when she came through the rather plain looking door, she was struck by the amazing amount of... knick-knacks he had strewn about.

She was first greeted by the large poster sized picture right behind his desk. It depicted a large yellow shield with a diagonal black stripe going from the top left, towards the bottom right. In the upper right hand yellow space, a black, horse-head shaped silhouette was placed. It seemed somehow familiar. Along side it on each side, various other emblems could be seen. One arched ribbon read, in plain English lettering, "AIRBORNE" and had below it, another shield, but with a full color image of an eagle with a white head. Another was a solid black background with the gold outline of another arched ribbon, this one had the lettering for "RANGER" on it. Based on the way they were mounted on each side of the large wall scroll, they seemed to be very important for the General.

Below these, were something she more readily recognized, pictures. Seemed to be class pictures similar to the TSAB's basic training schools for mages, but they weren't of mages, but camouflaged soldiers. The first image had a rather youngish looking group, with a commander in a rather, interesting looking brown hat off to one side. Another was a similar image, but with a more weather-beaten looking group that somehow seemed to be extremely proud of themselves. On the opposite side, an image of a younger version of Roland sitting atop a large tan vehicle she recognized as a Tank. What kind, she couldn't identify, and wherever he was in that image, it seemed to be a dessert. The final picture of the group of four on the wall showed him, many years younger, wearing a dress uniform and decorated moderately well.

The wall to her right held a different museum of items. She recognized some kind of Earth firearm in a glass case mounted to the wall almost immediately, but it seemed unloaded. Next to it was another case holding a large helmet and the camouflaged uniform he'd been wearing in the pictures. It was neatly pressed, decorated, and displayed immaculately for any wandering eyes.

The desk, was another story... despite the low amount of paperwork, it became clear why the general hated it in the first place.

He sucked at it.

A large number of papers lay unsorted in a seemingly random stack, mixed with manila folders that covered nearly every square inch of work space in a haphazard manner she was glad Rein didn't have to see. It was only broken by a small spot where he would be working on whatever paper was most important. She noted several numbered pages of a document laying 'lost' to different corners of the desk and realized they belong to a seventy-two page report that he seemed to only have six pages of. The only other empty space on his desk seemed to be one other display piece, a miniature model of the tank he was riding in the picture. It's 'gun' pointed towards the door, and whoever would be coming through it, as if guarding the disaster.

To her left, Hayate noted the chaos continued… Somewhat. Roland had a bookshelf, some shelves containing books she couldn't identify, and others filled with various knick-knacks she could only believe went with his 'set', ranging from odd pins to an assortment of TSAB, and non-TSAB rank pins. This was immaculate in contrast to the filing cabinet along side it, the middle drawer half open and a disarray with one manila folder sitting open on top, a paper about ready to drop to the floor. The top drawer was cracked open, and seemed to have it's own folder that looked like it hadn't gone in all the way and the general got fed up and tried to shut the drawer on it anyway.

All in all, it was as if Roland had been right in the middle of paperwork and simply dropped what he was doing to perform some other, 'more important' task on the base.

This, she had all taken in during the few minutes it took for the General to apologize for forgetting something, step out, and return with a data disk to place in the holographic computer console that seemed to rise up from the paperwork mess like a zombie from a grave.

"Comprehensive Performance Analysis from the Maidens and Devices," he explained as he sat down in his chair (which squeaked awkwardly as he did so). Then he noted her apprehensive look at the sheets of white before him.

"Oh, sorry about the mess, paperwork's not my thing."

Obviously. Hayate had been around her knights so long. In the back of her mind, she could HEAR Vita making that comment offhandedly.

Roland continued unperturbed at her constant uncomfortable glances at the mess on the desk, bringing up the holographic screen of his console and fishing for the compiled summary the AI's had done of the test.

"According to Bloodberry's strategic compilation, the MADCAP performed well above the statistical break-even point of the combat trial by an order of magnitude. The statistical break-even point was that it would be able to handle large numbers of unintelligent or vastly inferior foes handily with a secondary precedent of being able to evade and survive higher level enemy units."

Hayate nodded, waiting for the General to continue.

"After affirmation of results with Cherry, and performance cross referencing with Raising Heart and Bardiche on the matter, Bloodberry has concluded that EDI's performance in all tactical and strategic sectors to be of an ace level value. The combined summary quite clearly puts him on par with a well balanced Double S combat mage."

Roland waited for that to soak in, then continued his mini-brief.

"Strategic Planning, Tactical Evaluation, Reflexive Response, Preemptive measures," Roland Continued. "All vastly superior to any mage performance. Not surprising since EDI is a computer that can calculate thousands of combat scenarios in a second."

Hayate nodded. No argument there…

"Judgement, excellent. Compassion, I'm surprised this was ranked... but still. EDI temporarily suspended its mission to compete with Fate and then assisted her and Bardiche in breaking the speed record. Excellent level."

Roland flipped through a statistics point graph.

"Speed, more than any mage can handle save for what Fate displayed. Maneuverability and Agility. Not as good as a combat mage, but there's a tradeoff for being an airframe. Brute Power, well, unlike linker cores, the MADCAP has a defined magical power system and has a set amount of magic it can burn through at any given time."

"So he's lacking in offensive power?" Hayate asked.

"Oh he's got plenty of power," Roland waved her response back. "Thing is, while the overall output and in general, the stamina of the system would outlast any mage, EDI lacks the burst power a top level artillery mage such as yourself can put out. Whatever he can do is limited to the power of his generator over the course of time. What that translates into is what we saw."

Roland hit a button and displayed EDI's assault on Fate.

"EDI could theoretically engage with mid level buster shots almost non-stop," Roland stated. "However, unlike say, the stunts Nanoha can pull with that experimental Blaster System, the MADCAP cannot gain a significant short term increase in raw power to deal with significant threats. Not without a core overhaul, and it's rather difficult to increase core output without increasing its size."

"That makes his limits more or less well defined," Hayate nodded. "That makes his threat predictable, but at the same time..." she looked up, smiling. "A reliable and consistent platform."

"Yes," Roland nodded. "And Reliability is something mage forces can find rather difficult to maintain, seeing as our puny organic bodies constantly change."

"I remember when I was shooting down Jail's drones while Quattro was masking them with high level illusions," Hayate thought aloud. "I didn't have a problem taking them down, by the hundreds at some points, but the constant effort to stay on top of the numbers was taking its toll. Having some kind of assistance that would never get tired of dealing with them would have been a strong card to play, even more so later on."

Then Hayate looked up.

"But Jail in particular was learning from every move either of us made, and he proved it with his next offensive. What about Versatility."

Roland paged through the onscreen report.

"EDI is equipped with a basic combat package based off the most popular MidChilda combat mechanisms. He's got basic 'guns', so to speak, a pair of low power magical gattlings really. And he's equipped with two deployable combat systems that simplistically duplicate the buster shot, and the multi sphere homing bullet system. However, he's got a rotary rack with eight slots for installation of mission specific elements. So there's six slots that can be used to hold anything from specialized sensor elements, to exotic or mission specific arms."

"What kind of arms?" Hayate asked. Roland's eyes darted to the screen.

"Anything."

"Anything?"

"Well," Roland sighed. "Anything that FITS. The rotary rack is designed to accept a wide range of both standard and non-standard equipment on it's locking clamps. So long as EDI knows the hookup and operational mechanisms of the installed equipment, if you can make the clamps hold it, EDI could use it."

"Does that include mass based weaponry?"

Roland did a double take, but understood the genuine concern underlying the rather loaded question.

"Yes, strap a bomb in that slot and EDI would be no different from a supersonic fighter bomber," the General nodded. "We did a test of that with the rack system. The rack can hold up to four thousand lbs. of ordinance and still function effectively. Magical equipment generally doesn't get that heavy, so you can fill every slot. Real bombs though, the MADCAP could potentially carry two to four JDAMs."

"That brings me to another question," Hayate stated. Roland had a pretty good idea where this was going. "Why is it, out of all the TSAB, this facility has the authorization to for all intents and purposes, to play with banned mass weaponry, in what amounts to their own backyard?"

"Guts, Determination, and lots of WAAAGH!" Roland responded, looking off to the side.

"I'm serious!" Hayate crossed her arms.

"Okay," Roland shook his head. "I'll be fair about it. The short version is that I convinced the brass that the most effective use for the confiscated material destined for destruction at this facility was best put to use in a constructive manner. That the TSAB should not fall behind in the ways of mass weaponry, or risk falling victim to a situation in which they would be utterly unprepared to account for them in a large scale picture."

"MidChilda almost got destroyed by war one-hundred and fifty years ago," Hayate countered. "I don't see you convincing anyone, especially Regius who supervised you, that it would be a 'good idea' to let the weapons that nearly annihilated them become toys to some guy on a remote island... No offense of course."

"None taken," Roland nodded as if to say. 'Fair Enough.'

"But that's the abridged version, I never said it was easy. I had to pull facts, I had to pull experience, I had to pull favors and make trust calls. I had to compile a-three-hundred-page-report documenting what I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, and the costs and benefits to the TSAB at large on almost every level. I had to do PAPERWORK."

Somehow, Hayate could see that as being a kind walk through Hell Itself for Roland.

"Not only that, but I had to provide a feasible scenario in which the TSAB's magical superiority could go from an advantage to a Liability. And as hard as that sounded, somehow, I got lucky."

Roland stood up, walked over to his bookshelf, and pulled one carefully placed binder from its spot. Opening it up, he pulled out six sheets of paper, obviously a summary of the details in the stacks of papers kept in the binder's rings, and handed them to Hayate.

The girl scanned them for several minutes. The General watched as her face went from scrutiny, to the apex of utter disbelief over the course of seven minutes and thirty seconds.

"This... THIS," Hayate began at last, her mouth partially open in a shocked gape as she tried to find the words to fit what she was thinking.

"Is utter, and complete, bullshit of the highest magnitude possible, yet still completely TRUE." Roland smirked. "I took the United States' overview of the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, and constructed a scenario where in the Soviets got access to the most base of magical support just by capturing one Bureau mage. And then snowballed the worst case scenario in details too well written to be made up. I played upon every strength the Soviets had at the time. Numbers, industry, ruthlessness. Yet in classic journalism style, I neglected to mention their abysmal maintenance, failing economy, and poor morale amongst the people."

"And they BELIEVED this?" Hayate looked at the General shocked.

"Believed it?" Roland shook his head. "I could literally identify the very moment Gias hit the number of thermonuclear warheads in the Russian stockpile. The guy went white as a sheet before asking me if that number was real."

"What did you tell him."

"The truth," Roland crossed his arms. "I cut the number in half in the report."

Hayate turned as white as Roland had remembered Regius.

"Not only that, but once Gias realized just how easily even a basic transport magic could put a nuke on an unprepared cruiser, or even in HQ itself, he started asking for countermeasure options to the transport magic and/or the actual weapon. I didn't have permission to do anything, but he wanted countermeasures, for the navy. Regius HATED the navy. I think it scared the guy shitless for a week."

"But the Soviet Union fell nearly twenty years ago," Hayate countered after a few seconds. Roland leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head.

"You know that. I know that..." then he leaned forward and smirked. "They don't know that. Not to harp on the wonder that is the TSAB and what it's trying to do for mankind, but I'm a soldier, and those armchair commanders who run things are at best, rookies playing at politics when they've never actually been in a full scale war."

"But, MidChil-" Hayate began.

"MidChilda nearly MADed itself to death a hundred and fifty years ago... and it scared them so much they threw their weapons down and shoved anything war-like away from themselves as hard as they could trying to forget. Trouble is, they've actually succeeded to some extent, and it's DANGEROUS."

"And having weapons so easy a child could use them isn't?" Hayate asked.

"And a nine-year old with a built beam cannon isn't?" Roland counteracted. Hayate knew exactly who that stab was aimed at.

"I know it's flawed logic to say it," he continued before she could object. "But fluke or not, Nanoha was a child capable of demolishing buildings should she had wished it, and nothing short of full military action would have stopped her otherwise. With magic weapons, yes, no person is simply going to pick up a weapon and destroy worlds, but where do you draw the line at what is acceptable? A child abused by her biological mother sent around to be the violent but unwitting errand runner for a mad scheme that could potentially shatter realities? Or maybe the girl who accidentally discovers an ancient artifact that runs out of control and nearly destroys a city as a side effect?"

Hayate went deathly quiet, glaring silently with every fiber of her being, suppressing that hostile feeling of having her own personal history used as ammo in an argument. Roland laced his fingers under his chin and learned on it, suddenly looking far older than he previously had.

"Happy endings these tails," he nodded solemnly. "Happy endings thanks, not to some bureaucratic bullshit about how Weapon X is Greater than five hundred weapon Ys and should be smushed the moment its seen, but because someone put their ass on the line to get the job done, for better, or for worse."

He paused, allowing Hayate time to respond, she remained cold silent, but the look in her eyes softened.

"All I know is this," he stated. "It doesn't matter if it's mass based, or magic based, easy or hard, young or old, weapon or no. If it's dangerous, it will kill. One in a hundred, or one in a thousand. It's simply a matter of when, and where... all it takes is One. One failure to adhere to safety policy, one madman with a scheme to play, one dissenter who thinks he's more important than everyone else... and BAM. You kill one, you kill a hundred, you kill a hundred million. What are acceptable losses? Would you rather have to guess because policy makers decided it's too dangerous for the stuff you have to deal with to even exist? Or would you rather know exactly what that stuff can do, so you can know half the battle before it even starts, and defeat the enemy so quickly and thoroughly that it's not even worth calling a fight?"

Roland looked up, seeming to regain his composure.

"I'm not going to force you to change your mind, but I will ask you to think for yourself, just as I stated when you showed up. You are from the same planet I am. You know for a fact that while the very thing the TSAB fears can unleash horror... Just because it can, doesn't mean it has to. Even if it's a kid pushing a button... it still takes a kid to push the button. I would rather the people know the button could destroy the world, so someone knows to keep the child away from it. The alternative is a catastrophe waiting to happen."

Hayate looked down for a while as Roland continued to stare, absentmindedly noting he had fallen into a melancholy looking version of the Gendo Position. After about two minutes of complete silence, Hayate looked up again, seemingly almost sad.

"If only it were that easy to convince people..." she began.

"There would be no wars," the General looked solemnly over his hands. "And the universe would be a far happier place for everyone." And then his uncharacteristically soft gaze stiffened into the steel he had once before. "Until then... I have work to do."

And with a quick and purposeful motion, rose from his desk, sliding around the side somehow managing not to disturb the paperwork, and opened the door.

"Lt. Col. Yagami, if you would please follow me..."

* * *

Crash felt like shooting himself. Ever since lunch, he'd had to play tour guide yet again for the Aces and their team. Only now he had no 'attractions' to distract them, and it felt like he was currently under a microscope. Nanoha and Fate were talking quietly between themselves, chittering from time to time at some random comment, usually after pointing at him. Crash had also noticed, every few seconds, Nanoha would take a quick glance at him with a strange look in her eyes. For most guys, a pretty girl who can't stop looking at you would probably be the thing they practically begged for. But somehow, Crash knew this wasn't the case... He had a sixth sense for trouble. Being a walking Murphy's law tends to do that to you.

Signum knew the look. It was the same kind of look instructors gave new recruits who showed massive promise. Said new recruits usually got the star treatment. And in combat training... that meant hell itself for the rookie. She watched him twitch involuntarily after spotting one of Nanoha's glances. He may not know what the look really meant, but his instincts knew. As far as Crash knew, Nanoha was a bloodthirsty predator eyeing a particularly top cut of meat. Not too far from the truth given how intensive Nanoha's training could get. Signum of course, saw the raw potential Crash had exhibited as well, and that made things even worse. She couldn't in good strategic sense, NOT back a recommendation. And if Nanoha has her way (which she usually does, Signum learned that the hard way), Crash would be doing combat training with the forwards at RF6 in no more than two weeks. The poor guy probably doesn't even realize his doom.

And then there was Vita. Ever since lunch, Crash gave Vita an extra few feet of space. Obviously her reputation was out, and Crash was staying what he considered to be, 'outside of hammer range'. Signum knew Vita tended to be hot headed, but she also knew Vita wasn't as explosive as she let on. However between her reputation, caustic manner, and blunt threats of physical violence (reinforced with brash displays of Graf Eisen...), well... she couldn't really blame Crash for wanting to avoid the experience. After all, the kidnapping incident wasn't false, so there was SOME truth to the tales... plus Vita seemed to be so 'proud' of that one, Signum KNEW it was the first one divulged.

Then there was Fox. The girl was having a rather animated conversation with Vita... Getting along allot better than their first encounter. They were both smartaleks with big mouths, but Signum could only notice the complimentary way they managed to mesh. Vita was blunt, and had plenty of brute force to back it, but Fox had the wit and that holier than though temperament of superiority. Put them together and you have the beat-down of a lifetime, and then an equally sad gloating session.

The horror…

But then again, Fox was somewhat detached from Vita, having only just met. Fox and Crash on the other hand. A very nice complementation… Fox had the attitude but was learning, and Crash had a reverse of the personality, but the raw grit, knack for combat (whether he liked it or not), and restraint.

It was almost like Fox was... No, not a girlfriend... She didn't quite fit the bill for surrogate little sister either. It was more like... like. Like a sidekick. They'd poke at each other with verbal jabs, but Crash was clearly the leader in terms of personality, and not just rank.

After lunch, the General had yanked Hayate off to his office to review the data with her, leaving Crash to play the job of tour guide again... But without any place to tour, they'd simply spent about twenty or thirty minutes 'hanging out' for lack of a better term, in the Day Room. The Day Room itself was little more than a miniaturized, and under enthusiastic recreation center. A big screen Television occupied one wall, with a few couches and chairs centered on it. Some vending machines that dispensed drinks (Including a machine with lightning and magic circle artwork labeled POWERTHIRST. Rein was eyeing it constantly.) were stashed in a far corner. A couple of spare tables and some board games occupied the back of the room.

The remote was off limits to Crash for obvious reasons, so they were stuck watching some saga about a hyperactive blond girl, and her partner who seemed to die every other scene. Luckily, for Signum's own sanity, the stay was relatively short and the... unique entertainment of the blond girl's dialogue kept to one episode only.

Instead, Crash had opted to follow Fox to the test hangar, which required a few security checks before they were admitted to the section. Vita of course, wondered aloud if there was any place on this island that DIDN'T require a security screening. Fox supplied the answer quickly, and effectively.

"No."

Vita was moving towards responding about needing Security Clearance to use a bathroom when Hayate and Roland came up the corridor ahead of them. Upon seeing the entire group conveniently reassembled, he smirked.

"Enjoying your stay in Paradise?" he asked.

The girls shrugged. Roland took that as a yes and continued without hesitation.

"Well, I'm glad you're all here. It saves me the trouble of paging you over the PA system."

He motioned them over to a door leading into the hangar itself.

"We've reviewed the fight data, and I'm happy to say it's quite good. Plus I got the registration with the main database, and Fate over there officially holds the highest unsupported mage air speed record of all time."

There was a small round of applause from the group before the General interrupted them and turned to Fox.

"I think you're wanted inside," he stated. "Don said he has something for you to take a look at, so you might as well go in."

Fox nodded and opened the door, passing through before the General turned back, allowing it to shut on its springs.

"Now, before the rest of you head in there, I must say what you see is considered classified. We have EDI in there, but we also ha-"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nobody knew exactly when or how Crash had transformed. But no sooner did it register that the voice on the other end of the scream was Fox's, did a heavy armored boot from the Olympian armor plow into the door, hitting with enough force to tear the hinges from the frame. The entire mess spun inwards violently before clanging into the ground somewhere in the room. Crash was right behind it, bringing the multiform rifle out and up to power before the battered door had struck the floor. In the darker expanse of the hangar, he was already cycling to night-vision and thermal imaging on his HUD before he finally took stock of the situation.

Despite the flashy entrance, Fox stood, mouth agape, staring at something in front of her. Lowering the rifle, Crash looked at it too, and fell dumbstruck. The MADCAP was one thing, but the amount of detail he was looking at... Crash felt like his every waking moment was taking a further turn for the odd. First the feeling of living a movie... now a Video Game. But there was no mistaking the mass of triangular metal shapes in front of him.

"You're kidding me right?" he asked. "That... that's..." He knew the name, but seemed to have trouble forming the words in his own shock.

"It's an Arwing," Shamal supplied from behind him... The group had spilled in on his heals when he smashed the door in, so they were clustered around him. When she said that, all of them, including the General, looked at her as one.

"What?" she asked. "I like a game occasionally too you know."

"Well, is it real?" Vita asked. Fox still seemed to be stuck staring at it.

"OF COURSE it's real," Don suddenly announced, coming around one of the landing struts. "It took me a month to build."

"WHY do we have one built?" Crash asked, starting to twitch under his armor.

"Birthday gift," Roland supplied from the back of the group. Again, as one, everyone turned. He eyed them all briefly and then crossed his arms and looked at them all smugly.

"Fox's birthday was two weeks ago," he stated. "Don knew how much she liked flying the jets, and thought about building her one of her own to fly. A little flashy, but I thought it was okay. However, Cooper suggested the type of craft as a bit of a reference to her call sign and so he decided to build it as a full on starfighter. I suggested that to keep it a secret, we built it in here with the MADCAP so we could surprise her. So... well. SURPRISE."

Fox continued to gape, her head turning slowly to look at the General and then back to the aircraft, and then it began to register.

"You mean I get to fly this thing?" she asked.

Don crossed his arms and nodded. There was a brief pause as her shocked face turned into that of purest glee.

"'tbelieveI'!!!!!!"

"Battery..." Crash began.

[PRIMED]

"I think we need a slow motion instant replay... Because I didn't catch any of that."

Roland laughed as Nanoha walked up to the silver and blue starfighter and ran her hand along the metal.

"How well do you think it will perform compared to its game counterpart?" she asked. Don wandered away from the fighter, noticing the remains of the door, but responded as he did so.

"Well, it's got pretty much the MidChilda equivalent to every system it should have based on the game. It's rolling performance can't be replicated... and that deflection roll just won't work... but it'll accelerate like a rocket compared to every other vehicle on this base, including the MADCAP, and it's actually pretty good as far as it's atmospheric aerodynamics go. It's fully pressurized too, so it can go into space and dimensional space like a true starfighter."

While Don shook his head at the wreckage of the door, Crash followed Nanoha over to the Arwing, and raised his own armored hand to mimic what she had done, but stopped short when he realized he couldn't really touch with it, and lowered it again.

"I wonder how well I can make this baby perform with those kind of parameters," he wondered aloud.

"You so much as put a fingerprint on that Arwing," Don suddenly spun around. "And I'll string you up by your toes in only your underwear and beat on you with Phobos and Deimos like one of those Earth culture dolls that spew candy! That fighter is for FOX, and you will NOT! TOUCH IT!"

"Noted," Crash took a step backwards. A moment later, he remembered he was still in his armor, and powered down.

"So can I give it a test run?" Fox asked. Like any kid getting a new toy, they wanted to start playing with it as soon as they knew it was there.

"Actually, not until Saturday," Roland stated with a solemn tone. "We have to run you through the startup procedures, control systems, emergency procedures if something goes wrong, a safety brief... Just like any aircraft. It's not just a toy... and we don't have time for all that today."

"Oh."

To a newcomer, it was as if the world had just ended for Fox. Nanoha hid a smile, even a mature child was still a child on some level.

"Consider it an advantage for your situation," a synthetic tone resonated through the hangar. They had forgotten that the MADCAP was in here too. In fact, in the Arwing hype, they had completely failed to notice EDI parked directly along side the starfighter. The sleek arrowhead shaped drone was a dark color and blended well with the shadows despite the number of lights illuminating the hangar's work area.

"If you consider the weekday airspace requirements of the fighter wings, associate the burden of the AWACS flights and Abenobashi Air Traffic Control, you would have undue restrictions placed on your actions. On Saturday, you will have complete dominance of the local airspace to push the performance envelope of the Arwing to its fullest, and Air Traffic Control as well as the AWACS flights will have little trouble monitoring you and doing their jobs without hindrance."

Fox paused, then smiled.

"You're right," she stated. "Thanks."

"You are quite welcome," EDI responded.

"Not a bad piece of logical advice there," Crash applauded. "So you can do other things besides calculate destruction probability."

"As long as my operational assignment is for the test units," EDI began. "I am part of your squadron. As part of the squadron, it is my responsibility to take care of my wing-mates, both in the air and on the ground, to the best of my abilities. As it is said, that is how a team acts."

"Bravo," Crash nodded, clapping. "Bravo, and good show."

"Well, as was the good news from the test results," Roland cut in. "EDI ranked rather high on the compassion charts, so I'd say we're all in good hands... er, uh... wings."

-BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!!!!-

Everyone froze on the spot as a hideously loud attention noise blared over the PA... after a second or so, the familiar voice of Martin.

"Attention, Priority one: General Roland and all visiting Riot Force Six members, report to TICTOCC Immediately. Level three situation, I say again, level three situation. General Roland, Riot Force Six... Report to TICTOCC immediately. Martin out."

When everyone turned to leave, Roland was half way to the door at a quick trot.

* * *

"Sitrep!" Roland barked the moment he came through the doors to the Test Operations Command Center. The MSM showed the global map of MidChilda, but a new overlay with a pulsating red orb was highlighting a spot on one of the southern continents.

"New tasking orders for RF6 came in from HQ," Martin responded, even as the girls and Crash filed in quickly behind the General. "Level three situation, designated an investigative situation for the Lost Property Riot Force Six's jurisdiction."

"Brief us then," the General ordered.

"Yessir," Martin nodded. "Twenty minutes ago, HQ suddenly experienced a communications blackout with the main magical power plant just outside the city of Selene. At the fifteen-minute mark, when no communications came in from local forces investigating the situation, HQ turned MIDSAT C on the area. Sensor equipment encountered something unusual. An area over ten kilometers across is being covered by a blanket effect Anti-magi-link field."

There was an audible murmur from the aces at that point.

"As such, this was considered a potential after-shock of sorts from the JS incident a few months ago. With that assumption made, RF6's ace unit is being dispatched," and he rolled his eyes. "Since they are closer than other special operations units at this time."

"Pft! CLOSER?!" Crash suddenly scoffed aloud. "HQ needs to get some concept of distance in normal space then rethink that assessment! You know what they say about people and assuming."

"Quite," Martin stated. "However these orders are authenticated. Ground Command is quite serious."

"When they care enough to send the very best," Crash rolled his eyes. Roland put his hand on his chin has he skimmed the tasking orders again, his brow furrowing as he did so.

"What City was that again?" Nanoha asked. Martin pointed up at the MSM, the red dot blinking ominously.

"Selene."

Nanoha's jaw nearly hit the floor. Something Fate admitted she never had really seen.

"SELENE?!" she asked incredulously. "That's on the other side of the planet. Even at our best speed, it'll take over nineteen hours to get there by helicopter, and that's the best we can do short of a transfer!"

"Without a ship in orbit, that kind of transfer's too tiring," Shamal frowned. "They can't expect us to get there quickly and be ready for a fight."

As if he'd only just heard Nanoha's last comment, Roland looked up.

"Other side of the planet?" he asked, as if it was somehow not a concern. Everyone looked at him. "I can get you there fast."

Nanoha looked to him in surprise, but quickly hid it with scrutiny. "Like, HOW fast?"

Even Crash, at the back of the room, crossed his arms and waited for the answer. The General seemed to have something up his sleeve. It was that smug 'I know something you don't know!' voice.

"How does thirty minutes sound?" Roland asked. Fate's head snapped around, and they all looked at the General like he was crazy.

"And how do you plan to do that?" the blond asked, clearly not believing it.

"I have my ways," Roland stated, now so fully smug it was disturbing. He then hardened his gaze and turned to his second.

"Hey Martin!"

"Sir?"

"Ready the Deep Sky for takeoff," he ordered. "We're going for a ride."

Nanoha and Fate blinked.

"Yes SIR!" Martin responded with enthusiasm. In the back of the room, Signum looked at Hayate.

"Deep..." she began.

"SKY?" Hayate finished.

As they shared a look, Crash's head snapped up, and he slapped his fist in his palm. Of COURSE!


	6. Chapter 6: You Can't Hide from me Child

****

2:30 PM

120 Miles Northwest of Selene

Onboard TSA B.E.S.T. FORCE Aircraft: DEEP SKY

Altitude: 40,000 ft

As it would turn out, to Fate's mild amusement. The Deep Sky was Roland's biggest, and leanest callback to his home on Earth. The scrapped B-1b Lancer had been taken from the Boneyards located in the Southwestern United States one very foul day when the weather made it impossible for the local forces to notice a large TSAB transport Circle being used to haul it up to a cruiser. Roland still owed Admiral Lindy a good number of large favors for the whole stunt. Back at the base, Roland, Don, Martin, and a swarm of Mechanics in on the little project spent upwards of eight months overhauling and upgrading the aircraft. In fact... The list of work was so extensive that Roland admitted the vehicle was essentially completely replaced. And that the only thing it really had in common with the original, was the shape, the copilot's seat, and a plate on the ceiling inside that had originally been part of the vertical stabilizer fin that held the aircraft number. (It had been kept out of respect for the original vehicle.) But it was still an order of magnitude cheaper than trying to design a new craft from scratch and have it built.

All in all, it was a completely new and advanced aerospacecraft compared to the hulk they'd started with. The hull had been pressure sealed and replaced with materials that could withstand the stresses of leaving the atmosphere and vice versa. The engines were replaced with TSAB cruiser heavy thrusters. It even had modifications to use a moderately efficient magic generator for power. The most important overhaul however, was the bomb bay, or lack there of. The bomb-bay doors had been removed and the hull sealed there. The deck there had been replaced with a command and control suite not too far from what the AWACS were carrying, and the extra space accommodated for hauling people rather than bombs. The back had been cut open and turned into a sealing boarding ramp. Since he couldn't use it as a bomb truck... Roland had turned the craft in the fastest Light Mage Deployment Vehicle in the TSAB. A glorified transport. His decision to name it the Deep Sky stemmed from a CD of a band with the same name, and that he'd even picked the song RIDE as the vehicle's theme song out of the fact that's what he'd be doing on it most of the time.

And when Roland said thirty minutes, he meant it. No sooner were they clear of the runway and the landing gear retracted did the pilot pull the nose back hard and threw the drives right to max. He had essentially thrown the entire aircraft into a long sub-orbital arc, clearing the atmosphere for a few minutes at the top. Reentry was smooth, with the help of TSAB standardized barriers for such trivial issues. In fifteen minutes, they'd cleared well over seven thousand miles and crossed over into the southern-hemisphere of MidChilda. As useful as a JF-704 helicopter was for light deployment, it was just a snail compared to a craft who's original intent was, as Roland put it... 'A deep penetrating high speed killing machine'.

Why the General had such a craft? He'd shrugged off the question. Things could be done with transport circles and cruisers, or point to point via fixed facilities. In the end, it was Nanoha who suspected correctly. It was just plain COOL. And all Generals had their toys. Regius had his Einharijar project, at least until it had been totaled by the numbers and Gias himself killed. It was reasonable that Roland's 'cool toy' would be something both useful, and nostalgic to him. Of course, in retrospect, it didn't help the Archipelago's transport facility was a pile of rubble.

After leveling off at forty thousand feet, the Deep Sky had participated in a series of shallow S turns, bleeding off speed systematically until they'd dropped down to the more respectable low mach threshold. It had only taken twenty minutes for the initial sub-orbital arc, but they were still a few hundred miles out, and the General didn't want a sonic boom from hell causing all kinds of trouble as they approached the populated areas on the Southern Continent.

"I hope you don't mind my tagging along on your mission here," Roland stated in an apologetic tone to Hayate. He was stationed at one of the AWACS styled C&C terminals squashed into a corner of the hull. "This kind of thing is your jurisdiction in terms of experience."

Hayate shook the appraisal away with a smile. "Don't be silly. Having a few extra eyes on a mission's always useful. I would be a fool to refuse an offer to help. Besides, it's not like I could stop you... Sir."

"The chain of command is to ensure the quick and efficient flow of information and instructions," Roland responded with a grimace. "Not to throw one's weight where it doesn't belong. This is your job, not mine. You're in charge."

Of course, he silently admitted, outranking everyone here had its perks when he had to push to get the right action done at the right time.

"Seven Minutes!" the pilot interrupted.

"So... why am I here again?" Crash asked nobody in particular,

"Because I said so," Roland responded automatically.

"Is there any point to it?" Crash asked.

"Because I said so," Roland repeated.

"How about a purpose of some kind?" Crash was getting vexed trying to get the General to justify dragging him along.

"Because I said so, because I wanted it to be, because it is my prerogative, my call, and my will," Roland made it final.

Crash breathed an extra loud sigh of frustration and sat back in his chair, staring deadpan across the small isle at Signum, who in turn sat with an ever present stoic look on her face as if nothing in the world could bother her. Whatever reason Roland had towed him along on their little venture would remain his own, and further probing would simply result in PT, which was not something he'd like to embarrass himself with in front of some of the TSAB's best Aces.

Hayate watched the quick exchange with mild amusement as Crash tried without success to probe what the General was up to. Of course, it was plainly obvious from her point of view. Ever since her conversation with him in his office, it was clear as day and he made no attempt to hide it. The General was a true soldier, and wanted some frontline action as much as Nanoha wanted to drag Crash away and train him until it nearly killed him. He wanted to get out and help a little bit, even if he could do next to nothing but provide a sounding board for ideas. He'd been working that Test Facility island assignment so long now that he was probably getting a little stir crazy. Any reason to come out of his hole and strut his stuff. People were so easy to read sometimes. Perhaps it was just because she'd spent so much time as an investigator.

"Okay," she stated, turning to Nanoha, Fate, Vita, and Signum. "Just like we've done hundreds of times before, same routine, but with a twist."

Hayate blinked up a small Holoconsole.

"The Selene Magical Power Facility is a large complex consisting of Eight mana reactor buildings and their cooling towers set up in formation matching a standard MidChildan Magic circle. The main generator building is located in the center where the Mana Focal Point is. The entire Facility rests on a location where many of the Ley-Lines on MidChilda cross, making it one of the highest output power facilities on the planet. This plant alone supplies power to the entire southern continent as well as the city of Selene itself."

From a birds eye view, the satellite photo of Selene Central Power did look like an oversized magic circle made of buildings. A scale marker on the display showed the whole thing was a kilometer across.

"HQ thinks this may be the work of a Terrorist Organization known as Sektor 21, who are well known for their violent attacks on magic based power complexes throughout Administrated Space. The only confusing part for them seems to be the use of a wide area AMF field, something they didn't have before. If it IS Sektor 21, they probably utilized the AMF to hide their attack on the power facility. After all, this is the first time they've struck on MidChilda itself, and this would be the most ambitious attack ever recorded."

After a moment, she closed the window.

"However, they may not have known just how complicated the complex was. The facility is still generating power, it may be redundancies, it may be a trap... so let's be careful down there okay?"

"Five Minutes!"

Roland put his hand up to a headset he was wearing and issued instructions.

"Mav, bring us down to five thousand feet and come in over the lake. Be ready to equalize pressure for air deployment."

"Roger that sir," came the response.

They felt the Deep Sky roll, and the familiar sensation of stomachs trying to escape through their mouths met them as the vehicle went inverted and dropped its nose, falling gracefully into a dive. The artificial gravity kept everyone from losing their seats, but the dampening was turned down so they experienced a rare and unusual sensation of gravity pulling from two separate directions. Like an overpowered roller coaster, the aerospace craft dove below the clouds at high speed. After a few seconds, another roll put everything right side up once more as they continued to lose altitude.

"It's not a fighter Mav," Roland advised. "Don't fly it like one."

"Roger sir," the pilot stated. "I'll keep that in mind."

After a few a few more seconds of diving, they felt the gentle tug as the nose came up to a more level position.

"Angels Five," the pilot stated. "Leveling off."

"Okay!" Nanoha stated suddenly. She felt like getting things rolling. "Since we don't know where to start, I think I'll head in with Fate and check out the central generator center first. If they failed to shut the plant down the first time, they may be trying to finish the job, and that would be the place to hit."

Hayate nodded. "Take Signum and Vita with you. There's safety in numbers. I'll hold here and be ready with Rein and Shamal to back you up."

Nanoha and Fate nodded.

"Coming in over Lake Celcia. Three minutes to drop zone."

The deep sky shot over a large lake, most likely caused by glacialization thousands of years ago in the southern hemisphere. It was the perfect location. Aside from the Ley Lines converging as Hayate had stated, the proximity of the Lake provided a virtually unlimited supply of fresh water for both cooling the mana reactors, and for domestic use. It allowed the engineers who designed the power facility to scale the plant quite liberally.

The mana reactors were arranged in the formation of a magic circle. And the main generator building was placed in the center, maximizing the amount of mana-to-energy conversion that could be pulled based on the mathematical mana focal-point calculations that MidChilda knew best, and then boosted a hundred fold by the saturation caused by the Ley Lines. Coupled with the kilometer wide layout, it produced enough energy every day to provide for the total energy needs of the entire TSAB back to its founding day.

Or at least, it could at maximum capacity, or so the numbers stated. However, its actual energy loading was substantially less by many orders of magnitude. Yet, this did not reduce the facility's sensitivity. And as a prime target for terrorists, it was extremely well guarded and considered impossible for mere terrorists to successfully attack.

At least, until the attackers learned a new trick.

"Two minutes!" the Pilot called out. "Coming up on transition envelope."

There was no mistaking the feel of being in an AMF. Even the weakest magic sensitive could describe the sudden chill down the spine, momentary vertigo, and the seeming sense of lethargy that coincides with the weakening of their magical link. It was like having ample energy one moment, and suddenly having it yanked away the next. Normally transitions were slower and less intense, but coming in at just under Mach One made the gradient feel more like a sudden impact.

When Jail's drones had been using AMF, it required a massive number of them working in concert to produce an envelope of any considerable size. And then, the only other large area AMF had been produced by the Cradle. The wide area AMF that they had entered was a new variety.

The field itself was known as the Anti-Magilink Field, and would impair the magical links used by common MidChildan and Belken magical styles. A strong enough field could even completely disable a mage's ability to use magic at all. However, the properties of the field seemed to reduce the overall strength of the link rather than just cutting it off. So strong mages can remain active, though at reduced performance.

For the Aces, they'd long ago learned how to counter weak AMF, and dealt with it almost without thinking about it. Crash however, had never experienced anything like it, and found the sudden chill and lethargy disturbing. So much so that he shuddered visibly in his seat.

"First time experiencing AMF?" It was Signum, with an almost calculating tone. "You get used to it after a few minutes."

"Felt like I just got the wind knocked out of me without ever being hit," Crash shook the feeling off as best he could, but just couldn't lose it. Roland, with about as much magic potential as a ball of string, continued to stare unflinching at a display.

"Just focus a little and use your will to boost it," Nanoha stated, with an approving nod from Hayate and Fate. "That should get rid of the sensation, though you will be working with less energy than you normally could."

Crash nodded, but he almost felt taunted as he formulated a sarcastic response within the confines of his own mind. 'Easier Said than done... Focus she says... boost it with your will she says. How the smeg do I do that?' He may have incredible combat potential and funky luck, but Crash was still a C rank mage in terms of plain magical skill and power. Most of what he'd demonstrated was AI and armor assisted, doing the mental work for him while he operated on his instincts and reflexes.

Despite the charade, Vita didn't miss a beat and sighed.

"Imagine yourself surrounded by a glowing light, and then make it grow brighter."

Crash blinked...

"Oh."

"Yeah," Vita scoffed. "Oh."

After a few seconds, Crash managed to force the sensation away.

"Thirty Seconds!" Mav called out.

"Alright!" Roland snapped up. "Opening the rear hatch!"

There was a clunk and a hiss as the cabin did one last pressure equalization before the hydraulic ramp at the back started to lower itself down. It was blended well into the hull of Deep Sky as to not disrupt the natural Aerodynamics of the frame. With a hollow metallic boom, the ramp stopped, letting in the dull roar of the passing air outside as Deep Sky bled off more speed, easing off at a nice three hundred MPH.

"Anyone need JMPI Ed?" Roland cackled from his console.

Nanoha, Fate, Signum, and Vita looked at the General in a confused manner as they quickly rose and moved over to the ramp.

"Twenty seconds..."

Nanoha grabbed an overhead handrail and moved to the edge, overlooking the pristine blue sky and sparkling lake.

"Ten.... Nine... Eight..."

"Watch your backs," Hayate advised. Nanoha nodded.

"Six... Five... Four..."

"We will," Nanoha nodded.

"Two... One..."

And Nanoha threw herself away from the handrail and out the back of Deep Sky, followed immediately by the other three. Their bodies lingered in the slipstream for only a moment before they broke through the air current and began hurtling towards the ground five thousand feet below as the roar of Deep Sky dropped into the distance to be replaced by the roar of rushing air.

It was a breath-taking sight to behold. Sprawled out below them, a kilometer across, the Selene Magical Power Facility lay waiting. The overhead photos and schematics didn't do the facility justice. Arranged like an eight pointed magic circle made of buildings and landscaping, it sat on a slight artificial peninsula jutting out into Lake Celcia, the Ley Lines crossing over the surface of MidChilda coming to a focal point directly in the center. Where there wasn't buildings, there was the green of grass or trees, and the blue of ponds and fountains, keeping in Touch with the Focus of MidChilda trying to promote their green thumb where in contrast it had failed to take hold in places like Cranagan. It held a beauty of its own from the artful, yet practical application.

From this altitude, it was impossible to see exactly what, if anything, was going on, it seemed peaceful.

[STAND BY READY]

But that was merely an outward appearance, and lingering in free-fall wouldn't change that.

"Raising Heart," Nanoha called. "SET UP!"

-BING-

[SET UP]

* * *

"Mission START!" Roland snapped, activating a stopwatch, then spun to his console and began typing furiously.

"Opening primary communications channels as well as preparing backup communications channels, ECM, ECCM... all go. Rein, get on the wide band and link us up to MIDSAT DELTA, Shamal, access thermal-optical sensors arrays and begin a systematic grid-by-grid search pattern, check for anomalies such as heat masses and the like."

"What are you doing?"

Roland paused and looked at Hayate, then blinked. The question was an honest curiosity.

"Establishing a Battle Network," he nodded. "You said I could help, so I'm helping."

"Isn't all that a little overkill?" Hayate asked.

"There's no such thing as OVERKILL," Roland stated with a sudden, disturbingly haunted look. "Only, OPEN FIRE, and RELOAD."

And it was gone just as quickly as it came.

"Uh, sir..." Crash managed force his way into the situation. "I don't think we're at war here, there's no need to set up like we're going to fight one."

"Oh, we're at war all right," Roland responded as he typed furiously. "We're at war with ignorance itself. Though we may not be under attack from people trying to kill us, we do battle with the demons of nescience, clashing our wit against a wall of unfamiliarity in a siege against the very pits of oblivion for the prize of information most enlightening. No matter what the situation, knowledge is power. And I LIKE power. The people of southern MidChilda probably like power too… And want theirs to be on tomorrow as well. So if I can keep that power flowing by going the extra mile, I'll do it."

Crash could only sweatdrop and suppress an uneasy laugh.

"I'll just shut-up now..."

After a pause, and a nod from Hayate, Shamal and Rein quickly followed suit. Establishing an effective communications and information network running from Deep Sky, out to all the mages, and linked up to MIDSAT D and relayed back to RF6 HQ, and from there, back up to the network and all the way back to McGreggor. Where the Maidens slapped everything up on the Master Situation Monitor while they began compiling the data.

"Alright," Roland concluded. "Network's up. Lt. Col. Yagami, it's your command."

Hayate nodded.

* * *

As the Deep Sky orbited the area, Nanoha and Fate were the first to make a gentle touchdown on the rooftop of the Central Generator Building. There was no sign of activity on the outside, or anywhere on the Grounds as far as she could tell. Vita and Signum spread out to circle the immediate area around the building itself.

"Touchdown on site," Nanoha crackled over the radio. "And not a soul in sight anywhere."

"Are you sure?" Hayate's voice crackled back. "There should be someone... anyone even. That facility employs over five-hundred workers and at least that amount of security mages."

"Could be hiding indoors out of sight," Vita responded. "But I can confirm there was some kind of attack. There's a trashed Type I drone over here."

"There's a breach in the wall on the south side," Signum added. "Looks like explosives of some kind judging from the scorch marks."

"Check inside," Hayate instructed. "But be on your guard."

Nanoha and Fate nodded at each other and leapt over the retaining wall on the south side of the building, half-jumping, half-flying to land lightly on the grass near Signum, who stood inspecting a blast hole in the wall large enough to drive a truck through, literally. Vita came down next to them a moment later.

"Nothing else nearby," she concluded.

"Must have been a one-sided fight," Signum nodded, stepping forward. "But there's nobody around."

With a light bound, she leapt into the hole and landed in what would have been a hallway. Fate followed behind and fanned out to the left, and then Vita to the right. Nanoha brought up the rear, and after a quick look, they began to move into the undestroyed section of the building.

As they rounded a corner, they began to hear the steady humming of the generator room.

"Generators are still going," Nanoha advised over the radio. "Nothing interesting here."

"Keep searching," Hayate instructed. "Check the Focal Core room, it should be in the middle of the building."

They followed the circular hallway down, and found another hole blasted in the wall, this one with the remains of a type I drone scattered everywhere. Whoever had attacked knew where they seemed to be going. Following a few more blast holes through the building interior and into the center, they found the Focal Core. Vita entered the room first, and suppressed a curse, her reaction quickly earned the company of the other three, who had mixed reactions.

The Core room was a mess, to put it lightly. Several security mages lay dead almost right at the blast point, obviously killed by the explosion. Many more lay scattered about the room, killed in a variety of manners ranging from what seemed to be burns, to slashes, to being crushed under partially collapsed pieces of concrete where the floor from the room above had come down. Many more lay in crumpled heaps as if something had driven a battering ram into them. It looked as if the entire scene had been one dramatic and failed last stand.

"This was a massacre," Signum's eyes narrowed at the carnage. "Who or whatever killed them was so strong they couldn't even put up a fight."

Nanoha suppressed her own shudder as she looked around, her eyes falling upon a mage that seemed to be the local captain... He seemed fine up until you got to his head, but then... oh dear.

"Type One drones couldn't do slaughter like this," Fate stated as she followed Nanoha's gaze. "There are too many bodies here with fatal head contusions and too many of the injuries seem to be blunt trauma rather than slashing or burning weapons typical of a drone's laser or manipulators."

"Combat Cyborgs?" Signum queried.

"There could be more we never accounted for," Vita nodded.

"It's a possibility," Hayate's voice crackled on the radio. "We've been discovering bits and pieces of Jail's widely distributed legacy for years. I wouldn't be surprised if we found another ultimate end product of his work."

"But that wouldn't make sense," Nanoha interrupted.

"What wouldn't?"

"Why would Scagletti, a firm magic user, let any part of his work go to a group who, according to records, hates Magic in general?"

* * *

Roland, at his spot watching a video feed of the mess in the core room, quickly tapped a button.

"Run that past me again," he instructed. "Just how deep is this hatred?"

"Sektor Twenty-One," Nanoha's voice crackled back. "Is one of the most infamous organized terrorists organizations on record. They have a fanatical following of people who hate mages, were hurt by mages, or just hate the TSAB in general."

"To date," Hayate continued. "They're one of the largest consumers of black market weapons out there, and they use that to fuel a guerilla war of sorts with the TSAB. As with what we're finding here, their favorite target is mana fueled power facilities since these are such high profile, and high value targets of opportunity."

"For a terrorist organization," Rein came into the conversation next, the screen blinking past her at high speed. "They're quite well organized, and their logistics are rather amorphous, making it hard even for the investigations department to track them down reliably. Most Sektor Twenty-One agents captured are just fanatic lunatics trying to take their hatred out on anyone with magic abilities. There have been over three hundred documented suicide bomber incidents across dimensional space since the official opening of the record on S-Two-One, thirty-three years ago."

"I better read up on this," Roland muttered darkly, blinking up a secondary panel. "For a pesky terrorist organization, they've suddenly gotten hold of some pretty good toys to be pulling jobs like this."

"That's what bothers me," Nanoha's voice crackled back. "If what we're dealing with is the magic hating Sektor Twenty-One group, what are they doing with stuff that's very heavily leaned on Magical research?"

"Which begs the question," Hayate continued. "Are we really dealing with Sektor Twenty-One? Or someone trying to give the impression of Sektor Twenty-One?"

"The other alternative is hypocrisy," Signum crackled in her own thoughts. "Terrorists aren't known for playing by even their own rules if they can use something to their advantage."

"But then, if it IS," Hayate returned the ball. "Why is the power facility still functionally in tact after such a lopsided victory?"

"And ergo," Signum continued. "What kind of nasty toys do they have that we should be worried about? And who's supplying the toys?"

As Signum said that, Vita looked around again, and noticed one of the dead technicians was leaning up against the core itself, a trail of blood leading all the way across the room as if they'd dragged themselves while bleeding to death. It only took a moment of inspection at a distance to notice there was something in each of his hands. With a quick, almost skip across the room, she quickly moved over to the core and examined the hands. One hand was clutched around a deformed block wrapped in a black material. The other was gripping something that had frayed wires. One of them crossed over into the black block, the other was obviously pulled free.

"I got something," Vita snapped. "Come take a look at this..."

Nanoha bounded over quickly, stepping carefully over a few bodies as she went.

"I think we have a hero," Vita nodded solemnly. Fate and Signum joined Nanoha next to her and looked down at the once techie.

"Let's find out who this one is," Nanoha stated, and carefully reached forward, intending to get an ID card.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!!!"

Hayate nearly jumped out of her skin as Crash shouted in her ear, having jumped out of his seat in the process.

"Don't touch him, don't touch ANYTHING!" He continued. Roland was staring intently at him from the outburst when he nodded to him. "Sir, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Roland looked at the image. Looked simple enough, dead mage, disarmed detonator, squashed black wrapper that said 'M112' in yellow lettering just where it could be seen...

"C4," Roland scowled. "Add that to the list of shit they've gotten hold of. Bastards."

"Yeah," Crash nodded. "But I think something's wrong with the block."

After a few seconds as Roland tried his best to examine the scene, Nanoha's voice crackled back.

"It's empty,"

"Hol-E shit," Roland scowled, seeing it as well. "It is, good eye there young lady. You too Crash."

"I've nearly been blown up by that stuff two-hundred and thirty-seven times," Crash scowled. "I know what it's supposed to look like."

"Indeed," the General paused, searching the image. "But if it's not in the wrap, where is it?"

And his eyes fell on the bloodstained base of the Core itself, and for the first time, he noticed the odd texture that the technician's head was resting against, unnoticed at first compared to the smooth steel thanks to the discoloration. Oh, clever move.

"F-kkin' Booby-trap," he growled. "His head's sitting right in the stuff. The body is probably the trigger, or sitting on the trigger. Move him and you blow yourselves and the entire building to smithereens in a spectacular way."

Hayate examined the image. Roland was right. Some kind of putty-looking material, covered in blood, was behind the technician's head. Just barely noticeable, was a thin wire dropping down near his neck, looking almost like hair. If moving him was the trigger, the blast would have breached the Focal Core, and the resulting energy release would create an explosion that would have destroyed the building, most certainly killing any mage regardless of ability. It seemed almost perfectly made for taking down a high-class mage. Make it so only strong mages can really get in, then set a trap that would complete the 'mission' AND kill the mage (or mages) at the same time. The apparent disarmed explosive and detonator was a decoy meant to throw investigating mages off just enough for them to make a mistake of moving the body... and BOOM!

This just got more interesting.

"Seal the stuff," Hayate ordered. "We better search the rest of the facility for more traps. I think this pretty much answers if they're still around."

As she received an affirmative response, she rose from her seat and moved towards the back ramp.

"Where are you going?" Roland asked.

"I'm heading down there," Hayate responded, transforming in a flash. "We need more eyes on the ground to find the cause of the incident."

"You think it's wise to do that?" Roland crossed his arms, as if asking her to weigh her actions. Hayate smirked.

"We stand a better chance of finding the problem this way," she stated. "It's more logical. I want you to cover us from up here, if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them... Sir."

Roland nodded, spinning around to hit a button on his console.

"In that case, take Crash along with you," he instructed. "That'll make it even so you can pair off, and he's the one who caught the trap just now."

"What?!" Crash snapped, grabbing one of the hand bars and taking a step back. "Oh no way! I'm not going down there!"

Roland's head came around as he looked back. "Don't tell me you're scared of a little creepiness?"

"Scared?" Crash laughed, then turned serious. "I'm not scared!" He looked at the monitor where it projected an image from Raising Heart showing the body of the dead tech as she placed a seal on the C4. "Well…"

"Oh, don't be a wuss," Roland shook his head. "There ain't nothing down there but AMF, Mages, and corpses. You're not going looking for a fight, just going down to investigate the situation and find out of there are any more nasty traps."

"With all due respect," Crash shot back. "It's finding one I'm worried about. Or finding out what caused the corpses. Because I don't want to be one of them!"

Hayate crossed her arms behind Crash, waiting for someone to make up their mind. She had an investigation to run... And wanted to know what to plan for sometime today. Roland noticed and tried to apply a little more pressure.

"Utter nonsense," he stated.

"Nonsense?" Crash sputtered. "My gut says otherwise. And I'm sure you remember what exactly happened last time my gut told me something wasn't right."

Roland spun around on his chair and put both his hands on his knees.

"There's no Cyborgs or anything like that down there wanting to swarm you," he stated. "You'll be just fine. Better in fact, than the mages with that power armor in an AMF."

"You don't know what might be down there any more then-URP!!"

Whatever Crash had been planning to say was abruptly cut off as Hayate, fed up with the argument, decided to take matters into her own hands. Yanking Crash by the collar of his uniform shirt, she hurled him backwards with more magically enhanced strength than her stunted frame would betray to the average passer by. Before Crash really understood what had happened, he found himself unceremoniously tossed out the back of the Deep Sky into open air, and instantly dropped out of sight.

Roland, Rein, and Shamal stared blankly as Crash, along with his argument, became a moot topic. After a few seconds, the General turned his eyes to Hayate.

"I would never have thought of that one."

"I have kids," Hayate shrugged.

"He is older than you, you know," Roland replied.

"So is Vita," she continued. "Doesn't make a difference to me. Kids will be kids."

And with that she jumped off the ramp and out of sight.

* * *

"MOTHER HUBBARD!" Crash snapped as the air roared past his ears. It took a few seconds after he'd dropped from the back of the Deep Sky to realize exactly what the short mage had done. The girl probably knew exactly what she was doing when she decided on it, but he could at least answer honestly next time on a test if ever asked the question 'Have you ever been thrown off of a plane?'

As he tumbled, Crash silently labeled Yagami into one of a few categories he had. This one of the jokester. Of course, this joke wasn't funny.

"NOT FUNNY AT ALL!" he roared over the wind.

"What's not funny?"

It was Hayate, her hair an odd color, and she was diving along side him, inverted, her strange set of black wings were pretty, yet creepy. Crash blinked silently at her once as she looked 'up' (down really) at the ground below them.

"You should probably transform before you get too low or you'll have trouble slowing down in that armor."

And with that, she began to slow her own descent, leaving Crash to plummet towards the ground. Maybe transforming was a good idea.

"Battery?"

[PRIMED]

"Uh... engage, very quickly."

[ENGAGING!]

There was a flash of light, and Crash found himself wearing the now familiar Olympian Armor. With the roof of one of the Mana Reactor buildings coming up to greet him rather quickly, Crash decided Hayate's advice was indeed the epitome of all wisdom, and used his flight power to brake his fall.

...

Nothing…

Why wasn't the armor slowing down?! WHY?! It was capable of turning on a dime, maneuvering at high speed, and coming to sudden stops with the gravity assisted- ...Oh.

Crash remembered one very important fact.

The gravity drive took forty-five seconds to complete the cold start warm up process.

"OH SHI-"

Hayate cringed as Crash went straight through the reactor building rooftop with the force of a small bomb, ripping a hole in the reinforced concrete like it was made of shoji screens, like the walls in some buildings back home. Without hesitating longer, she quickly flew down to the top of the hole and looked in, fearing that her method of stopping an argument may have had very adverse consequences. As the dust started to clear, she heard the sound of shifting rubble, and then a crackle on the radio.

"I feel... Pain. Good. That means I'm still alive."

She breathed a sigh of relief and jumped down into the hole.

Crash was busy digging himself out from the shattered concrete and powder around him as she touched down. Aside from the grunts of pain he was making, there looked to be no physical damage to him.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm a masochist... I LIKE smashing through four feet of reinforced concrete at terminal velocity," he sputtered through his headset, but kept it off the open channels. "With friends who throw me out of planes, at the rate we're going I'll be dead before an Enemy gets to take a shot at me. Why don't we just have my eulogy now and save the trouble later?"

Hayate blanched at the scathing remark, glad her friends weren't able to see it. Crash in the mean time, finally cleared himself out of the rubble by lifting a large chunk of concrete, and tossing it aside. Then he paused.

"Great, HUD's out again..."

After slapping the side of his helmet a few times, the transparent screen blinked, and came back to life.

"Phew... Battery, run a silent diagnostic."

While the AI did the self-check, he looked around the room, then to Hayate.

"So where'd I land anyway?"

"Reactor Building Four," Hayate nodded to him. "Southeast side of the complex closest to the town."

"At least I didn't land on anything sensitive," he looked around. "I hope."

A brief diagnostic summary blinked up on the inside of his Heads Up Display, Grav. Drive Anomaly, probably from Impact... ETA to functional time, thirty minutes. Lovely. Crash looked back up the hole he came through. Four foot thick reinforced concrete ceiling, then two floors where he'd blown straight through. They must have been on ground level now.

"Do you hear something?" Hayate asked. Crash turned, looking around. Maybe he DID land on something sensitive. Great…

"Probably just the mana reactor," he waved it off, hoping, to any deity that would listen he was right.

"No," Hayate turned and walked into another room. "Mana reactors don't pulse..."

Crash turned the input gain up on his helmet, there was definitely some kind of low pulsing sound.

"More traps?" he suggested helpfully as he bounded off his rubble pile. "I like to not set one off..."

And they both found what appeared to be the source of the noise. A capped off cylinder about Hayate's size, with an antenna sticking out of the top sitting on a tripod that looked like it folded up into the sides, was methodically pulsating under its own power in the corner of the next room. The low pulsating thrum it was giving off seemed almost soothing.

Hayate's first thought, considering the explosive trap Nanoha took care of, was BOMB. But at the same time, her gut instinct said this was something different. Crash started to walk forward to give it a closer look, but remembering previous events, he instead, halted and opted to radio the others.

"Hey guys, we got something over here you might want to see," he began. "We're over at Reactor Building Four on the Southeast side. Fastest way will be in through the skylight."

"The reactor buildings don't have skylights," Vita's non-plussed response returned.

"Building four underwent renovations in the last few minutes," he responded. "We're one room over from the skylight."

* * *

It only took the other four a minute or two to get over to the Mana Reactor Building, and down through the new 'skylight' as Crash had dubbed it.'

"Renovations," Vita shook her head. "Funny..."

Signum whistled at the hole as she passed down through it to the bottom floor, eyeing the damage with a calculating eye. As she touched down behind Nanoha and Fate, she kicked a small piece of the crumbled concrete to the side.

"What do you make of this?" Hayate asked. Nanoha and Fate walked over to what seemed to be an unspoken 'safe distance' from the small pod.

"Think it belongs here?" Fate asked. Of course, considering most of the equipment in the mana reactor building consisted of panels, and items bolted to the ground, the tripod mounted... Pod Thingie, seemed oddly out of place in a back corner.

"What do you make of it sir?" Crash asked over the wide channel.

Onboard the Deep Sky, Roland inspected the Video feed intently.

"Looks like some kind of portable transmitter to me," he shrugged. "Transmitter for what, I don't know. As far as the networked intel. goes, not a single transmission's gone in or out since this whole thing began."

Crash crossed his armored arms and walked up to the device. Signum made a motion to stop him, but Hayate blocked her with a shake of her own head.

"Riddle me this," he pondered aloud. "If I punch it... will it simply stop working? Or blow us all to Al Hazred?"

Nanoha sweatdropped and laughed uncomfortably. "I don't think that's the best idea right now."

Crash shrugged. "I don't really want to anyway... I like being alive."

Up on Deep Sky, Roland laced his hands together under his chin, on a nearby console, Rein suddenly straightened up visibly as she noticed something on her display.

"Shamal, look at this," she motioned. The short hared blond shifted from her own console and gave a quick look, and then her eyes widened as she opened the radio link.

"Crash, back up," her voice crackled.

Crash blinked, then backed up several paces from the object. After a few more seconds, her voice crackled again. "Okay, step closer..."

Crash obeyed.

"Now back up again..."

"Do the hokey pokey," Crash muttered in annoyance, but obeyed.

"Now you Nanoha," Shamal's voice crackled. "Same thing, twice."

Nanoha complied, and after a few moments, Shamal quickly cycled through the rest of the group.

"You got something?" Roland asked as the support mage worked with Rein on their consoles. Shamal silently nodded as she took advantage to the link to the main processing systems back at RF6 HQ and the Maidens at McGreggor. After a few seconds, a clean data set showed up on her monitor.

"Got it!" she announced. "Local AMF field density increases sharply just two feet from the unidentified object. It's pretty uniform beyond that, but it spikes when you get right up to it."

"AMF Projector," Hayate shook her head. "I should have known."

"Well," Roland crackled in. "At least it's not a bomb."

"Like the hero really wasn't a hero but a decoy," Crash rolled his eyes. "Riiight. How do we know this isn't a double decoy?"

"To be fair," Nanoha Shrugged. "The explosive alone wouldn't have been enough to do anything, I've been hit with bigger."

"But an exploding focal core would have certainly done it," Hayate criticized. Nanoha laughed it off quickly.

"Maybe."

"So now what?" Crash asked suddenly.

"I think it's rather obvious," Roland's voice crackled. "It's producing the AMF... AMF slows us down. Let's shut it off."

"Exactly!" Hayate nodded in agreement, then turned to the pod, and frowned, heaving a sigh out with her next sentence. "How do we do that?"

A quick glance to Nanoha got merely a shrug. Fate similarly drew a blank. The pod seemed to have no external interface. Perhaps it was remote controlled by radio signal or-

"SMASH!!!"

They all jumped as Vita pulled Graf Eisen out of the remains of the pod, which sparked and burst into flames for a moment before falling apart harmlessly. Crash took a step back as Vita turned a non-plussed look at them all.

"Universal Off Switch," she quipped.

"I think it would have been a better idea to take it in-tact," Crash nudged. "To see how it works and all..."

Vita turned an unimpressed scowl on him.

"We're not here to find how it works, we're here to unscrew the problem."

Crash sighed as the deceptively young looking mage swung her war hammer back onto her shoulder. Was she always this critical under stress?

"I personally would have liked to know how they got the AMF to behave so uniformly over long range," Roland crackled back. "It would help us for pinpointing them in the future."

"You may still get your wish there sir," Shamal's voice followed. "The AMF is still active, though it seems to have weakened by about one-eighth."

There was a sound distinctly like a sigh coming from the General.

"Great... If my mathematics are what they used to be, that means we got seven more of those things hiding anywhere in a ten kilometer diameter area."

"Unfortunately."

Up on the Deep Sky, Roland put his hand on his face as he thought. His gut instinct was violently against a house to house styled search of the entire facility and the surrounding town. With so many places to move and hide at the disposal of a potential enemy, Urban Warfare was a soldier's worst nightmare. Surely Hayate realized this too. She was a rather smart girl after all.

"Okay guys," her voice crackled. "We're going to have to split up and perform a complete area search if we want to find those things."

God dammit...

"I disapprove," the General announced into his headset. "A search in this environment is way too risky."

"All due respect sir," Nanoha's voice came back a little surprised. "I think we can handle a little risk..."

"I think he's right," Crash's voice cautioned. "We're talking about an area that's seventy square kilometers in size."

"Significantly less," Reinforce snapped up from her spot. "Remember that the center of the AMF is over the facility. Even if they managed to control their transmitters quite well, their distribution has to be pretty evenly spaced and within at least two kilometers of the facility in order to keep the field centered because of the lake. Too far apart, and the field center would move inland away from the plant."

"Never the less," Roland turned to the AI. "That's the worst possible environment for ambush. We should call in more backup and wait before searching."

"We can't do that Sir," Hayate's voice crackled. "The AMF may be relatively passive, but nobody in the area can effectively operate in it like we can. At best we could pull my Forwards, but we're looking at transit time for them since I gave them the day off, and that would only give us four more people."

Roland swore, sitting back in his seat and scowling at the unforgiving logic of the situation. It was one of those things that had irked him since he'd been in the TSAB. The distribution of Power was ludicrous at times. Yes, a good mage was worth an armored battalion. Then again, most of the stock mages had about the effectiveness of a civilian police officer. With the distribution of power favoring, single, strong mages, the strategic planning could be tailored to the vulnerability that brought up. A loss in terms of a single mage of any decent level was potentially catastrophic. And the trouble with mages, is that despite being flying tanks in terms of firepower, a lucky hit or good sneak attack could still kill them as easily as any other human. It was the same problem that had ultimately driven Gaias Regius to an Early Grave. This situation and environment absolutely reeked of the potential for disaster. But Hayate knew her job better than he knew her job...

"It's your call then," he came out of his thoughts. She knows the risk, she's got the experience.

"We'll search," Hayate sounded determined. "But nobody goes alone, we pair off and stay close."

The Buddy System. Yes, yes. Smart Girl.

"Sir, you've got the birds eye-view and the data hub, so you'll be our coordinator," she continued.

Roland nodded, time to do this systematically.

"Got it," he began. "Priority search is going to be our seven remaining AMF transmitters, we'll refer to them as Projectors. If little Rein's analysis is accurate-"

Reinforce Zwei instantly puffed up at the 'little' comment, but was ignored.

"We can narrow our search area to a three kilometer radius of the generator building. The pods are man sized as we already know, so they can be in any building, in any room, which is a lot of places to search. A grid search method would take too long this way, so I suggest we break up into three teams."

Shamal looked over as Roland was reviewing data on his screen.

"Nanoha, Signum, Alpha team, use your call-signs. You've got search magic, so scour the inside of the reactor buildings from head to toe, leave no stone unturned as they say. Fate, Vita... Bravo Team... External grounds search. Check storage sheds, vehicles, open fields, trees... You'll back up Alpha as well in case they meet trouble. Hayate, Crash, Charlie Team. Immediate town search, outside only. Look for signs of forced entry for now. I don't want you doing a room by room search alone until we finish the facility. Check doors and windows, and remember... Anything suspicious enough to look at is suspicious enough to point an attack at."

There was a chorus of affirmatives from the ground party as Roland looked at the data on his console. After a moment, Shamal turned to him.

"I'll start an area search with ClairerWind from the outside and work my way inwards. If there's anything suspicious, we'll be the first to know."

"Okay guys, let's get this Search going!" Hayate seemed to almost cheerfully belt out, despite the ever-present threat hanging over the area. Nanoha quickly spun, floating off the ground and levitating quickly across the room, dropping several white glowing orbs as she went, Signum following her with her hand already gripping Levantin in preparation to slice something up. Fate and Hayate bounded back to the opening the in the ceiling and quickly leapt up out of sight, leaving Crash and Vita to catch up before they dispersed.

"Hey," Vita snapped as Crash walked the opposite direction to a room door. "Hayate went that way... go cover her like you're supposed to."

"Can't fly," Crash quipped. "Grav. Drive's out from that impact, so I have to take the normal exit first."

"If you hadn't acted like a dofus and powered up immediately, that wouldn't be a problem," she responded.

"You can thank Lt. Colonel Yagami for that one," Crash responded curtly. "If anyone was acting like a dofus, it would be her okay? I didn't exactly ask to be thrown out of the back of a plane, so cut me some slack... I'm no combat expert like you guys are."

Vita turned on a heal and walked over to the test pilot, a non-plussed look once again on her face. As she stopped, Crash suddenly got that crawling sensation down his spine he didn't like. Then she raised one gloved hand and waggled her finger for him to come closer. Crash leaned in.

WHAM!

Graf Eisen didn't hit, so much as the hammer end wedged itself between his helmet and shoulder armor, and then Vita gave a firm yank, dragging crash down to one knee in front of her. The sight of a four foot tall 'little girl' manhandling the six and a half foot tall armor behemoth with ease, using what looked like fancy metal polo mallet would have been funny… Were it not for the look on her face that was a vicious in its silence as Don was in a two hour-long double S rant.

"Listen, and listen good," she growled in a tone that was obviously off the radio. "This is not a game, this is not a joke, and this is certainly not a vacation. This is a potentially life threatening situation and not your island paradise test facility by the sea. This is a real mission, and as long as you're here, you need to at least take the job seriously whether you like it or not, whether you wanted to come here or not."

She then pointed with her free hand towards the hole and lowered her tone almost impossibly to a hiss.

"Hayate is -VERY-, important to us... You are assigned… By your commander… To act as her escort… And she to you… So you will ensure that you guard her to the best of your abilities and beyond, because I don't want ANYTHING to happen to her. And God help me, if you let anything so much as SCRATCH her, both myself and Graf Eisen will ensure that you know what it feels like to be a can of sardines caught in a trash compactor while it's being used in a presentation of Verdi's Anvil Chorus! Are am I making myself clear?"

"Crystal," Crash gulped. The half-maniacal look she had was easily seen from this close, and it said she meant every syllable of that threat.

"Good," Vita nodded, lifting Eisen out of its wedge and allowing Crash to stand himself up straight. "Don't you dare fail me."

"Let's go guys!" Hayate's voice sounded through the hole. Vita spun and bounded over to the hole and leapt into the air, leaving Crash in the dust. Hayate looked at the girl with just the slightest impatience as she appeared over the rooftop.

"What's taking so long?"

"Crash's gravity drive system is malfunctioning," Vita shrugged as nothing had transpired. "He can't fly without it so he said he'll meet you at the building entrance."

Hayate rolled her eyes and smirked, at least her little stunt hadn't done worse. Spinning in the air, she floated over towards the reactor building entrance where Crash would emerge. Vita turned to Fate, who Nodded and took off to begin their search of the grounds.

* * *

Roland could say that it has been his personal experience that most people do not appreciate the scale of One Square Kilometer until they've personally had to search and clear an area. As a former US Army Veteran who spent sometimes weeks doing dull Field Training Exercises, the concept of searching for a man-sized object in such an area was one that immediately made the General blanch. If you could for a moment, imagine the average American football field, roughly a hundred meters though you must remember to carry the extra few inches the yards lose... Now you stack ten of them end to end to have one-kilometer distance. Then you take ten more and go perpendicular to your direction of travel, making a giant L shape with them. Once you've done this, and you see your fields extending in two directions from the corner, you look in the middle and imagine everything within this partially outlined square to be your search area. Then you fill this area in with numerous multi-story buildings, and lots of random clutter. Once you've firmly established what that looks like in your mind, you multiply it by nine and that would be an adequate visual representation of the current search area.

In short, it could be best described by the classic saying 'Trying to find needles in a haystack.'

Nanoha was no stranger to the concept of the extremely wide area search. Once before, and under similar conditions, she used search magic for two solid hours while in combat onboard the cradle just to find one person. She could still remember the look of total shock on Quattro's face through her targeting window as she prepared to blast the sociopathic cyborg through over half a kilometer of reinforced bulkheads. Even still, it had taken two hours, and that was searching for a single person. This time there were seven objects to locate, and even though there was less volume to search though, she still expected this would end up taking several hours. Nanoha's outlook on the situation, while more optimistic than the General's outlook, was still locked into the grim realization that this was going to be a long and tedious process.

At the same time, Hayate's almost jovial approach to the search stemmed from her time spent doing more office styled duties and data searches. There was just something about the girl that seemed to thrive under harsh conditions. It was perhaps a psychological after effect of spending her childhood days paralyzed and reduced to a wheel chair patient, and the unique outlook on life it gave her. Or perhaps it was the fact that she knew she could find happiness now matter how grim things looked. Whatever the true reason... Despite the carnage in the core room, and the foreboding of the situation, Hayate seemed ready to tackle it with a smirk. To Crash, who'd just gotten what amounted to a Death Threat from Vita, it seemed completely inappropriate as they walked, yes walked, to the main entrance to the facility.

The first ten minutes went as expected for any search... Absolutely nowhere. And Roland calmly marked each area off on the map as they cleared the sections a piece at a time.

It was the Vita and Fate, arbitrarily dubbed 'Bravo' team who reported in first.

"We've got something interesting over here," Fate's voice crackled over the wide-band.

"Define: 'interesting' as it were," Roland responded. "Interesting 'Oh neat', or Interesting 'OH SHIT' ?"

"More like interesting 'what the hell' really," Vita's voice crackled in. "There's been some kind of excavation done just north of the cooling tower of Reactor Building Seven."

"Excavation?" Hayate's voice popped in. "That's rather strange..."

"Strange nothing," Roland grumbled. "Why would they be digging up a place they want to destroy?"

"That's a very good question," Nanoha's voice crackled. "Anything else there?"

"Lots of scrapped drone parts," Vita responded. "Also, it looks like someone caught on to the operation and tried to stop it. It's not pretty over here."

"Another Massacre?" Roland asked. This was looking more sinister as the death toll climbed.

"Not quite," Vita responded. "Looks like they tore up a number of type ones over here... but it looks like they were attacking, and drones had an effective defense. They seem... Modified."

"We'll have to collect one for examination," Hayate crackled. "Any clues as to what they were excavating for?"

"It's like they strip-mined the place," Fate commented. "There appears to be some kind of, room below the foundation of the tower... It looks old."

Roland squinted and turned to Reinforce.

"Can you bring up the historical records for this area?" he asked the pint-sized unison. "Blueprints, floor plans, survey crew reports? Anything and everything, even myths and legends if there are any."

"Already searching," Reinforce Zwei responded. "Just so you know, the Navy just sent word that a special investigative unit assigned to hunting Sektor 21 is on the way and should arrive in ten to fifteen minutes."

"Oh really?" Roland asked. "Good, then we won't be alone with this mess."

On the ground, Fate worked her way forward between debris of both the organic and inorganic types, and into the hastily ripped ground. "I'll check inside, watch my back."

"Just be sure you watch your front," Vita nodded, looking around. "I don't really want to dig you out if there's a cave-in trap set up here.

Fate nodded, bringing her protective barrier to a higher level before stepping inside. The opening was narrow, but in just a few steps, she was in a small enclosed room. Roughly rectangular, and covered in dust. The ceiling was low, and the back corner was collapsed. However, looking at the ground, it was obvious there HAD been something in here. Several heavy somthings, that had been dragged quickly out of the narrow entrance.

"Not much to report," she stated informatively. "Looks like they found what they were after in here..."

"Now I'm confused as hell," Roland crackled back. "This stinks more of a cover operation than a real attack with every passing moment."

Fate looked around puzzled, and set Bardiche firmly on the ground with a small clang.

[SIR, I AM DETECTING TRACE AMOUNTS OF IONIZED HELIUM IN THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT. ENERGY LEVELS ARE ABOUT FOUR POINT SEVEN ELECTRON VOLTS]

"Radiation?" she quipped. Indeed, she was underground, it was probably accumulated Radon gas.

"What was that?" Roland crackled. "Radiation? You find some Radon in there? Don't breathe the shit. I had an aunt in Iowa who got cancer from it and I never got to meet her."

"Grab a soil sample if you can," Hayate interjected over the commlink.

"What are you thinking Yagami?" Roland asked.

"Like I've been watching too much CSI," she quipped. "Anything can be evidence."

"You watched CSI?" the General seemed surprised.

"I watched it all the time in the hospital when I was little." Hayate admitted. "The Head Nurse seemed to eat it for breakfast."

Fate ignored the rest of the conversation as she walked over to the collapsed section of the room and quickly took a soil sample with Bardiche, then turned and left the empty room for the open air outside.

"Got a projector," Nanoha chimed in happily. "Reactor Building Two in the northeast quadrant, they hid it among a bunch of CO2 tanks."

"Awesome," Roland crackled. "See if you can disable it without turning it into scrap metal."

"Rip the antenna off," Crash interrupted. There was brief silent pause, in which it could be imagined that everyone was considering the repercussions of any advice the test pilot might give. After a second, there was a radio-amplified sigh. "Transmitters without antennae don't transmit. I've broken enough of them to know that much. Trust me."

There was a loud metallic crack, followed by a ringing snap, and after a few seconds, Rein informed them the AMF had dropped by another one-eighth of the total.

"Two down, Six to go," Hayate crackled.

"Stay Sharp," Roland responded, a little more terse than he had been. "The more we dig up, the more I'm starting to agree with Crash."

"Thank you... I'm glad you see it my way..."

"Shut-up Crash." The tone was one hundred percent no-nonsense.

"Shutting up."

"Something's fishy, and I don't mean Lake Celcia," Roland continued after Crash clicked off the line. "This level of strategic diversionary prowess is TOO smart. My skin's starting to crawl. It hasn't done that since the Persian Gulf."

"Care to share your insight with us sir?" Hayate asked.

"Well," the General began. "What appears to be Sektor Twenty-One terrorists, have, out of the blue, and with resources they previously didn't have, attacked the largest target of their 'style' in a move that was in and out without any significant losses to them. They rigged a booby trap and decoyed it, and then used the whole thing to cover some bizarre excavation of theirs to locate something it seems the building planners didn't know about. I know Terrorists aren't stupid... but this seems more like a Special Forces operation then some random Abdul-N-Da-Boyz stunt."

"Abdu-what?" Came Nanoha's voice.

"Just ignore my terminology," Roland waved it off. "It's just a way I used to refer to terrorists."

"What would you suggest in this situation then?" Hayate asked.

"I would suggest exactly what we can't really do," Roland shrugged. "Pull back, get a few hundred pairs of boots on the ground, and put a gunship on station. If they're still here, bring the rain, if not, well, it makes a good exercise."

"My gut tells me they found what they came for and left," Hayate responded. "Whatever was in that excavation was probably the real target, and that worries me."

"Me too," Roland admitted. "They got what they wanted, and the trap was just their parting gift, which makes me wonder what else they've left for us."

There was a click as Crash rejoined the line.

"That's entertaining and all, but tell me... Was this place always a ghost town out here? Or did they evacuate?"

Roland looked at his monitor puzzled.

"As soon as the AMF went up, there was an immediate evacuation order for everyone in a six kilometer radius for public safety. Why?"

"Oh, I'm just wondering," Crash crackled. "If the place is evacuated, then anyone I see is suspect..."

"Generally, yes." Nanoha's voice popped in.

"Oh good," Crash responded... and then suddenly. "HEY YOU!!!!"

Hayate spun around as Crash used his voice speakers like a megaphone. Down a side street she'd passed, about twenty meters away, she noticed who Crash was shouting at. Whoever it was jerked around suddenly, looked at them for a full two seconds, and bolted around the corner. Crash burst into a run, his boots making loud clanking sounds as he gave chase. Hayate immediately pushed off the ground and arced up over the separating building.

"What's going on?!" Roland snapped.

"Apparently Crash's sharp eyes aren't tuned only to objects," Hayate stated. "He spotted someone just now, I'm moving to box him in."

Hayate cleared the building and spotted her quarry...

"Suspect is white male," she began. "About a hundred eighty-five, a hundred-ninety centimeters, very... impressive build."

Just as she looped overhead to get in front of him, the man looked up, then spun and smashed into a shop door, shattering the glass as he did so and vanished into the building.

"Suspect is indoors," she advised. "Crash, keep going and try to flank him in the back."

"Easy for you to say!" Crash snapped. "I have to run!"

"You're fit," she smiled.

"Keep laughing LongArch," he snapped. "At least you don't have to put up with Will on a daily basis like I do."

"Keep in mind this is an Open Channel," Roland's voice dripped back with utter sarcasm. "Cut the chatter."

"Yessir," Crash huffed. His armor may be powered, but he still had to do the running.

"Suspect in the open again, sprinting southeast!" Hayate snapped. "Make a right!"

"On it!" Crash shouted, leaping a dumpster, then sliding across a sawhorse to catapult out onto the next street. "Got 'im!"

Crash spotted his target making a beeline from a recent forced exit of the building Hayate had seen him enter and sprinted as fast as he could. As he charged the man down, he noticed the man raise something, and reacted on instinct.

"HE'S ARMED!"

-K'TING!-

-CRACK!-

Crash felt the round graze his helmet just as his reflexes pulled him out of the way. He mildly noted that if he hadn't moved, the round would have hit dead center in his faceplate. His HUD quickly displayed estimated size of the round from the impact strike as Battery analyzed it. There were more loud cracks and bangs as more shots struck his armor plates. Crash immediately crouched and sprang towards a nearby building, smashing bodily through a door as rounds zipped past his head.

"Suspect is using mass weapons!" he snapped as he rolled to a halt, bringing out his Multiform Rifle. "Looked like a medium rifle, brown finish... Battery says it's a seven point six two millimeter round..."

"Sounds like an AK," Roland responded. "Moderate armor piercing ability against normal materials, but then again, you're a step away from tank armor."

"You want our help over there?" It was Signum.

"No I'll take him!" Hayate stated, snapping open her book. "I'll tie him down and take his weapons away."

"Don't rely on your jacket to stop seven-six-two!" Roland snapped. "If it's FMJ it can still cut through!"

"I'll cover her then!" Crash snapped, coiling for another spring.

"Go now!" Hayate snapped as she began reciting a spell.

Crash rolled out of his spot and opened fire with the MFR. The man ducked the bolts and retaliated with his own return fire. Crash heard a loud ping as a shot connected with his chest plate.

"Holy- LongArch, keep moving! This guy's scoring a bullseye every other shot while on the move."

"STRUGGLE BIND!" She crowed, hurling a glowing rope of binding magic at her foe below. Hearing her shout, the man's head yanked around to see the fast moving restraint magic bearing down on him. With a spin and a step, he fired off a few more rounds into it and threw himself into a back flip as the spell met resistance in the form of bullets. He landed just outside its grasp and snapped a hip shot off at Hayate, who had the presence of mind to zip sideways the first time he fired. Even still, she almost yelped as she felt a round nip her barrier just past her neck.

"I missed!" she growled. "I should have brought Rein along too. I wouldn't have miss-"

-CRACK!-

"YEOUCH!"

"BUT HE HAS NO PROBLEM HITTING!" Crash snapped as Hayate took evasive action in the air. All he needed was her to get hurt and Vita would use him for Croquette Practice.

"Wait, he's reloading!" he snapped. "I got him!"

Crash braced himself and took careful aim. The MFR barked a report as a blue bolt shot down the street and struck dead on, shattering the wooden hand-grip of the rifle as the man prepared to snap another magazine into place.

"Score!" Crash snapped. "I'll-"

Crash ducked as the man flung the entire rifle at him full force, which was surprisingly hard. Crash looked up again and the man was gone.

"Shit," he swore. "Battery, thermal scan! LongArch! Where'd he go?!"

"South from the intersection!" Hayate responded as the man ran towards a side door on a building. "Now going west through a building. Step it up, he's booking it fast."

"On my way!" Crash responded, barreling down the street and continuing on to the next intersection in an attempt to cut the man off.

"Out in the open again," Hayate informed him. "Now backtracking north, you're almost to him..."

Crash upped his sprint, feeling his legs starting to burn.

"Slow him down," he panted. "I'm fit, but this guy's some kind of athlete or something!"

Hayate nodded, pages already flying in her book. A large triangular Belken spell pattern flashed to life as she raised Schwertkreuz.

"Oh ruler of the white snow, with silvery wings. Turn all the earth in vision to ice!"

She rounded on the target as it smashed into an alley. Four white cubes forming around her.

"Come forth, Breath of Frost... Atem Des Bodeneisis!"

And she swung Schwertkreuz down, hurling the energy into the ground below. In seconds, the entire block below was flash frozen by the spell, the man skidded to a halt before he too was frozen in place.

"I said FREEZE!" she quipped with a smile.

"Very funny," Crash responded, nearly slipping on the ice as he rounded a corner. Luckily Hayate's magic could at least identify friend from foe. "I'm almost on him."

Hayate smirked as she watched the scene below, Crash was about to come in on the opposite end of the alley... wait.

"He's still moving!" she shouted.

Crash rounded the last corner to the sound of a click. It was really the only warning he had.

"THOOMP!"

"BOOM!!!!"

The next thing Crash knew was that he was flying the opposite direction he'd intended until he slammed into a wall.

"Crash!" Hayate yelped.

"Takes more than that to kill me!" he snarled as he sat up, shaking his head. Armor or not, impacts hurt. Twenty-five meters ahead, the man, still stuck in place, snapped open the tubular weapon he was carrying, dropping a cylinder on the ground and placing another one in. He then yanked quickly, snapping the barrel shut and turned to point it up at Hayate.

Hayate's eyes went wide and she threw her hand forward, erecting a shield as the weapon gave off its characteristic sound.

-THOOMP!-

Hayate felt the round detonate against her shield, the force jolting her arms slightly.

"Suspect armed with breech loading grenade launcher!" Crash snapped immediately as he tried to right himself. Hayate, above, fell back a little to see around the smoke cloud. In front of him, the man went to reload, ripping his feet free of the ice where they'd been planted. "He's strong, fast, and I'll bet he's had practice with these crazy snap shots."

"LongArch, get your ass in the sky or out of the sky!" Roland snapped. "You've got a bullseye painted on you at low altitude like that!"

"I won't be able to spot him if I'm too high up," she countered.

-THOOMP!-

Crash hurled himself clear of another oncoming grenade that blew a hole in the wall behind him. When he stood back up, the man was again, out of sight.

"I lost him again!" he alerted. "He's not taking us head on if he can help it."

"He can't have too many grenades on him," Roland advised. "If that's an M-79, at best he's going to have six or seven in a combat load."

"And if he has MORE?" Crash asked sarcastically.

"Unlikely," Roland crackled. "He hit you at fifteen meters and it armed and detonated. So he's probably operating on a limited supply of modified grenades."

"Did he use the explosion to break out of the ice?" Hayate asked.

"I don't know," Crash responded as he sprinted to an intersection. "But speaking of ice, either that explosion screwed up my HUD for a second, or that guy's not human.

"What do you mean?" Hayate asked.

"The guy's a popsicle," Crash responded as Hayate shot overhead to look around. "I was trying to use thermal to spot him faster, but he's no warmer than anything else around here."

"Am I showing up cold?" she asked. Crash looked up, Hayate was illuminated by a red and yellow blob.

"No, you're Hot," Crash responded.

"Why thank you," Hayate smirked overhead. Crash resisted the urge to put his hand squarely on his face before Hayate returned more seriously. "I have him, down the street a block over and moving quickly. Head east. I'll see if I can get him to waste another shot."

Crash took off sprinting again. When was battery going to get that Gravity Drive back online?

Somewhere around then, Fate announced that she and Vita had found and disabled another Projector, dropping the AMF ever so slightly, but still not enough to let their device sensors function effectively.

Crash heard the distinct report of the M-79 followed up by a boom as Hayate successfully shielded herself from attack. Rounding the corner to see the man, once again reloading the weapon. He snapped up the MFR and clicked over to autofire. There was no way he would let that reload finish.

The man spun away from the flurry of automatic blue bolts as they sprayed into his position, ducking himself behind a parked car to finish. Then, in a single deliberate move, came out from behind the vehicle barrel first, and brought it to bear on Crash. This time, Battery silently responded to the spike of adrenaline in its master's bloodstream and erected a defense shield.

-THOOMP!-

-BOOM!-

Crash spotted the barrel of the M-79 through the smoke on his thermal scan and took aim, a moment later the MFR barked in retaliation and the grenade launcher was jerked violently out of the man's hand. When it hit the ground, it was obvious the barrel was warped from the shot, and was now useless.

"I've disarmed him!" Crash snapped as the man again bolted into a side alley. "Help me pin him down LongArch!"

Hayate arced overhead and over the building as Crash sprinted into the alley. Just ahead, the man rounded the corner onto another side street. Hayate shot back the other direction to try and cut him off. As Crash rounded the corner, he came face to face with the last thing he would have expected. An Unidentified Flying Dumpster (UFD).

The reflex was automatic, just as it had been with Fate's zanber. Crash swung out and struck at the dumpster with his free hand, stopping it dead in its tracks and spilling refuse all over himself where his armored fist tore the thing open.

"Ewww..." He twitched as a diaper landed at his feet. "He's so getting my dry-cleaning bill."

Swinging wildly to the side, he hurled the dumpster out of his way and looked quickly around... There was no sign of the target (the term 'suspect' pretty much disposed of at this point). Just an empty street, and a nearby open door.

"Dammit," Crash muttered, having lost sight of the guy for the fifth time. "He's quick... I think he went in here." he pointed to the empty office.

"Into that building?" Hayate asked, coming to a landing next to him. "You sure?"

"Definitely," Crash nodded through his helmet. "The door's still moving."

Crash moved up carefully, holding the multiform rifle in front of him, then stood slightly to the side and kicked the door open. After a few seconds he rotated into the entryway and swept the room left to right.

"Nothing," he muttered. "Just a private office."

"In the back or on one of the upper floors," Hayate responded. "Probably bolting out a back door."

-CRASH!-

Crash swung the MFR up as Hayate threw up a shield. Above, a shrapnel cloud of glass issued forth from a second story window and rained down on them. It bounced harmlessly off Hayate's shield, and just as harmlessly off Crash's armor. But glass wasn't the only projectile raining on them. Hayate jumped backwards as an office filing cabinet crashed into the ground where she'd been standing, erupting in a cloud of papers as the concrete proved its superior strength.

Crash spun around to make sure Hayate was okay.

"Someone doesn't like us very much," he chuckled after a moment. The office must not have a back exit and the guy was getting desperate without his weaponry.

And then something else landed in the pile of papers. Crash and Hayate both looked down at it. A small cylinder.

"What is-" Crash began.

-POP!-

Crash's HUD reacted instantly to filter the violent flash. His helmet speakers managed to only blare the sound instead of receiving it full force. Hayate's world in contrast, went silent, and white as the item worked as intended. Expecting a sudden violent attack, Crash fell back and stood between the Lt. Col. and the building the attack had come from, even as more shattering sounded around him. After a moment, no further attack came. Only silence. As Hayate attempted to blink away the after-image burned into her vision, Crash sighed a little inwardly, visions of Vita and Graf Eisen using his head for a golf ball banished back to the nightmare realms where they belonged.

"Heads up," he muttered. "Add flashbangs to the list of tricks."

After receiving a positive response from Roland, he turned to Hayate.

"You okay?"

Hayate shook her head a little more, then looked at him confused.

"WHAT?!"

Why did Aces seem to end up temporarily deaf around him today?

"ARE YOU, OKAY?"

"BARBQUE TODAY?" she asked. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Crash sighed and leaned his head on the nearby brick wall of the office. Knowing she would be deaf for a moment, but otherwise okay, he opened a direct channel to Roland.

"Banshee One to Deep Sky... Dammit Will, why'd you pair me with the Lt. Clown?" he grumbled.

"Because it's a good compliment," Roland's voice crackled back. "You two go well together."

"I hope that's not the attempted girlfriend joke you were pulling this morning," Crash responded.

"Not this time," Roland came back. "She's a double S mage, but I've checked her record. She's a glass canon, no close combat. You're good for close defense if things go south."

Crash stood up and turned to Hayate, noting the glass all the way across the street, and the scattering papers. "Why not Signum or Vita? Aren't they her guards anyway, AND more skilled?"

"AMF," was Roland's response. "Your close combat ability relies on mechanical strength rather than magic, which is good in that blanket field. Keep that in mind. Besides, I also wanted to keep competitiveness down to a minimum. Stand by, I've got an incoming message to check..."

"Right..." Crash responded deadpan. "Banshee One out."

Hayate looked alert again.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she responded. "I take it Bar-B-Que wasn't the topic the first time around?"

"No..." Crash responded. "I only ate two hours ago..."

"Looks like this guy doesn't want us to find him again," Hayate nodded to the filing cabinet and scorch where the small flashbang had gone off, changing subjects on a dime.

"I was expecting us to get jumped," Crash admitted. "It's what I would have done here."

"Same," Hayate responded. "But I guess this guy doesn't think he can take on two mages without his toys."

Crash nodded. "He's probably still in there."

"Hayate? HAYATE!?" Vita's voice was coming from around the corner of the building behind them. "Hayate?"

"Keep an eye on the bottom floor," Hayate instructed him.

Crash decided Vita must be coming to make sure herself that Hayate was in decent shape, and whether or not she'd fulfill her earlier threat. Deciding to just stay out of sight, Crash looked back to the office.

"Got it," he nodded.

Hayate turned and walked away towards Vita's calls. Crash carefully walked into the office entrance, looking around slowly. Something was nagging the back of his mind as he did so, weren't they using call signs out of sight?

"Easy there," he muttered. "It's just from being in live combat..."

* * *

Hayate rounded the corner of the building, looking down a side alley where Vita's voice had come from. Where was that girl? Just a pile of trash cans.

"Vita?" she called. Stepping forward a few paces towards a side door.

Crash heard the call in the distance, what was wrong with this picture, he felt a chill down his spine like a horror movie.

Hayate felt a similar shudder as suddenly she felt her magic weaken and her dark wings vanished.

'Wha?'

* * *

'click'

Crash's HUD flickered, and suddenly the field density counter skyrocketed. A second later the radio erupted.

"Whoa, the AMF just got stronger he-"

"-Stay sharp, there may be-"

"-ammit! I almost fell into that cooling tower!"

"Don't let it faze you."

Crash froze in mid step. Vita was over the cooling tower? Crash found himself spinning on his heal even as the pieces suddenly clicked into place. That second crash of glass... He looked at the street from the door, the glass across the street was too far away from the window the filing cabinet came out of, he looked up the building and saw the second floor window there violently shattered as well. If Vita wasn't here then...

"HAYATE!" he shouted, Comm open wide on every channel. "IT'S A TRAP!"

-KABOOM!!!-

If Crash had still been in the office, he probably would have been killed by the massive explosion that demolished the building. Luckily, being just out the entrance, he was thrown across the street into the ground floor window of the opposing shop.

* * *

"LARGE EXPLOSION IN SOUTHEAST QUADRANT!" Roland thundered over the radio, completely scrapping the original search plan as he did so. "Drop EVERYTHING and converge!"

* * *

Hayate spun around at the sound of the blast tailing Crash's warning. Along side her, the door suddenly blew outwards in a cloud of debris as something came through it. She managed to dive forward just enough to get out of the way. She then stood up, concentrating to get flying, but suddenly found the AMF even stronger than before as if it was being focused to thwart her efforts. Spinning around, she saw the man they'd been pursuing barreling down on her. He had a frame like living tank, now that she got a good look at him. Holding her rod, Schwertkreuz, in front of her, she prepared to take him with a Black Impact from her free hand as he raised his arm.

-CRACK!-

Hayate didn't expect the delivery to be so fast, or strong, and was hurled clear of the alley and landed painfully without any protection from her barrier jacket.

* * *

"Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!"

Crash pushed himself up from the floor of Debris as he checked his HUD was still online. An Admiral Lindy plush doll gave away that he'd crashed into a toy shop.

"Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!"

Crash cocked one eye as he shoved the doll away and stood up. He saw Hayate trying to get to her feet as the man they'd been pursuing bore down on her. As the man gave Hayate a kick that was obviously not buffered by jacket defense, Crash found himself tearing out of the shop at a full sprint despite his protesting body, tucking the Multiform Rifle over his shoulder on a minor thought over the amped AMF and charged blindly.

"HEY ASSHOLE! PICK ON A LINEBACKER YOUR OWN SIZE!"

The man's head spun, and Crash idly noticed the AMF field density spike even more as he tore into him. But as he reached his target, the man swung his arm around and slugged him straight on. Crash was completely surprised at the strength as he was hurled right back into the toy shop, smashing a support pillar and causing a section of the floors above to cave in on him.

"Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!"

'Hello again Admiral.' Crash didn't wait around though, and opened a Comm even as he started to dig his way clear of the debris.

"BANSHEE ONE TO DEEP SKY!" he roared over every channel. "LONGARCH IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE OVER HERE! I NEED BACKUP DO YOU COPY?"

Managing to get a hole to see through, he saw the superhuman grab Hayate by the shoulders and throw her forcefully towards the debris of the office building across the street as Roland came back hard and fast.

"DEEP SKY HERE! HANG IN THERE BANSHEE ONE! NEW ASSETS ARE BEING VECTORED TO YOUR POSITION NOW!"

New assets? As the brutality began to climb, he started thrashing violently at the rubble around him, putting over half a ton of leverage to work.

"HURRY UP WILL YA?! THIS AIN'T A PICNIC!"

* * *

Hayate found herself coughing up blood after being thrown. This... thing wasn't human... couldn't be human. She tried to stand up, but the figure loomed up over her and grabbed her again, this time by the throat, lifting her off the ground, and holding her in the air. She could see the Deep Sky cruising overhead trying to observe the blast area.

* * *

"Drop a transfer on those coordinates and I mean NOW!" Roland barked into his communication screen.

"Keep your pants on General," a harsh voice responded.

* * *

Crash was almost free, but he wouldn't be free fast enough. The guy looked like he was getting ready to finish Hayate off. He felt a twinge of panic as he snarled into his mic again, punching a particularly tough wedge of concrete as best he could in his limited space.

"WHERE'S MY DAMN BACKUP!!!?"

* * *

"There," the voice responded caustically. "Transfer commencing."

Roland flipped the channel and barked a new advisory as he tried to focus on the area.

* * *

"STANDBY! ENFORCER COMING DOWN NOW!"

'THUMP! THUMP!'

Crash paused as he heard the sound, someone was coming in fast. Very fast. Fate?

* * *

Hayate was losing it. As this thing held her up, it was slowly squeezing her neck harder, slowly depriving her brain of blood flow. The corners of her vision were starting to go black as she continued to stair helplessly at the sky. At the borders of consciousness, the brain can do some pretty weird things. Hayate found herself thinking about having the late General Regius dressed up like Zangief from Street Fighter. A strange thought, no stranger than the appearance of hallucinations, like the bright star in the sky. A star that was quickly glowing brighter as her vision grew darker. Was this the famed tunnel of light one saw just before death? There was a flash, and even an angel was coming for her. Somewhere in the last shreds of consciousness, her logic kicked in.

An angel with a battle axe? Her mind reasserted its will enough to hear Roland snap over her radio link.

"THANATOS ONE! ENGAGING!"

'KABLAM!!!!"

* * *

Crash's head jolted up from his digging at the thunderous explosive sound. The concrete around Hayate's position was shattered, the superhuman monstrosity was falling backwards... missing an arm. Hayate had dropped to the ground, the arm sparking uselessly to the side. Sparking? A cyborg? No, no blood, a ROBOT! In the center of the crater, was someone new, wearing a white barrier jacket, silvery hair, and standing crouched with a battle-axe in her grip. She looked up as the android regained its balance quickly, then let go of her axe and brought that hand around. Crash briefly noticed something on the back of the hand flash, and the bot was hurled backwards by a concussion of air.

As she stood, she spun around and held her hand out at Hayate, saying something quick and hard to hear. There was another flash from the back of her hand and Hayate was enveloped in a green barrier.

Hayate coughed a few times as the barrier shot up around her. Whatever this woman had just hit with, hit her attacker hard. She looked at the severed robotic arm next to her, now completely dead, and quickly grabbed it up, immediately regretting the sudden motion as no doubt, several broken ribs or worse protested angrily at anyone daring to move them.

"Engagement successful," the woman stated. "Requiring Evacuation Immediately."

The robot looked up as it recovered its footing.

- DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: 18%

- RIGHT ARM SEVERED, FUNCTIONALITY COMPROMISED

- SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: FAILED

- THREAT TYPE: COMBAT MAGE

- HOSTILE THREAT ASSESSMENT: MEDIUM

- CHANCES OF SUCCESSFUL COMBAT: 78%

- ACTION: TERMINATE

Spinning around, it ripped a steel reinforcing rod out of the concrete, leaving just a head of concrete on the end and brandished it in its one arm.

"Target still active," the woman stated, tightening her grip on her Axe, then shot forward rather suddenly, surprising Hayate with the motion.

"HYAAA!!!!"

She reached the attacker in under a second and came down with her axe, the robot blocked overhead with its makeshift sledgehammer. She quickly drew back and returned with a fast swipe. The Robot managed to block again. A loud clang announced the impact that easily proved to be quite a formidable matchup of strength. The robot retaliated, striking back, and the woman parried the blow, sliding back a few feet. Gritting her teeth, she planted her feet and drove into the android a third time, this time spinning off the counter-move and coming around hard. There was a flash as the axe connected and the makeshift rebar sledgehammer snapped in two right out of its hands.

Using the momentary opening as the robot threw its weapon aside, she stepped in and brought her arm into its chest, then grit her teeth and jabbed the base of her axe into the spot, driving it back before she came around and up with the bladed end.

-CRACK!-

The android was flung into the air and backwards to smash a nearby car utterly in its impact. A moment later, Crash, having had enough digging, manually switched completely to physical power, putting all his magic into boosting strength. With a thunderous crack and a column of dust, he punched straight through the rubble pile, breaking it up enough to manage lifting a still rather titanic slab the size of a truck.

"Have a piece!" He shouted, and took a heavy step, hurling the entire slab of reinforced concrete. It smashed into the car and crumbled into a pile of rubble and rebar. A moment later, a fist smashed its way out of the mess, and the robot broke free and stood up, walking forwards in a slow and menacing fashion. The Woman brandished her axe and prepared for round two.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAA!!!!"

The robot leapt aside as Vita joined the fray like she'd gone completely mad, Graf Eisen coming down hard to crater the concrete where it had been a moment before. She came about with a snarl of rage and took another swing, striking air as the android ducked. The strike connected solidly with a nearby lamppost and sent the whole thing tumbling down the street end over end. On her third try, the robot managed to Catch Graf Eisen, surprising Vita before it grabbed hold and started to swing her. As it let go, Signum landed hard next to it and took a shot of her own, Levantin flaming from a recent cartridge load. The robot barely avoided having its head taken off as the blade struck its good shoulder, eliciting a flurry of sparks as it spun away from the slash and jumped backwards onto the remains of the car. It looked up and prepared to fight off more opponents when there was a series of clicks above.

[DRIVE IGNITION]

"Limiters released," Roland growled over the radio. "Engage hostile."

Nanoha brought Raising Heart in front of her, spell circles forming beneath her. Fate duplicated this action a few meters away. The robot paused and quickly looked from mage to mage as they assembled in front of it.

- TARGET COUNT: 2 AGRESSORS, 3 COMBAT MAGES, 1 COMBAT EXOSKELETON, 1 ARTILLERY MAGE

- THREAT ASSESSMENT: VERY HIGH

- CHANCE OF SUCCESSFUL COMBAT: 5%

- ACTION: RETREAT

"I'll be back..."

Suddenly, it raised its arm in the air, Crash noticed the small cylinder it was holding as something popped off to the side.

"EYES!" he warned, but too late.

'POP!'

The flash and bang disoriented everyone in the vicinity save for Crash, who unfortunately, tripped on leftover rebar in an attempt to grab the machine as it bolted. When the effect wore off, the robot was nowhere to be seen.

"DAMMIT!" Vita snarled, smashing the remains of the car in frustration. "It got away!"

"Deep Sky, can you track it somehow?" Nanoha asked into the radio.

"Negative," Roland came back. "Too much AMF interference as before. How's LongArch?"

"I've seen worse General," Hayate winced, trying to stand up, but gritted her teeth in pain as who knows how many injures made themselves known, and collapsed again as Vita rushed over to hold her. "Oooh... heh. Just like old times isn't it?"

"That's not funny," Vita fought back tears now that the rage was wearing off and her own emotions tried to rush through. But she was tougher than that, and wouldn't let it go past that.

Crash watched as the group quickly broke into a rapid exchange of information with the newcomer. Combat talk just wasn't his thing. There was a beep and a message on his display informed him that the Gravity Drive was once again online. Wonderful timing. He continued to look around, pulling the MFR back out and readying a charge in case that magicidal maniac robot decided to show its ugly face again while the others quickly prepared a point to point transport spell to transfer Hayate up to the Deep Sky. Where Shamal could get to work on the medical aspects.

A few minutes later, after a quick flash, he noticed Vita stalking over towards him, Graf Eisen slung idly over her shoulder while she herself sported some kind of hollowed looking scowl, dried tears notable in the corners of her eyes. Crash inwardly thought he was going to receive her previous threat and took a step back as she reached him. He quickly prepared for any excuse and an inevitable pummeling, but she simply gave him a tired smirk.

"Good job," she nodded. "You probably reacted better than I would have under the same circumstances. Thank you."

Crash blinked. It was praise he received, and not pain. Was he already dead and someone neglected to give him the memo?

Crash sighed, the voice filter of his helmet making it blatantly obvious as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"I should have realized it the moment I heard your voice calling Hayate rather than using a radio or a call-sign, but I was a little preoccupied with your threat to think about it right away."

Vita glanced at him.

"My voice?"

"Yeah," Crash nodded. "Probably that Robot the whole time. I only realized it was a decoy because you started swearing about that cooling tower on the radio when the AMF amped up."

Vita looked at him silently before nodding in understanding. After a moment, she gave him an uncharacteristic gentle pat on the shoulder plates of his armor.

"If its any consolation, I know I tend to be more vicious sounding than I am half the time. But don't be too hard on yourself. If the forwards can keep up with things, an experienced test pilot should pick it up quickly enough."

Crash smiled behind his faceplate, shifting his stance slightly.

"Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!"

They both looked down.

"Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!"

Crash lifted his armored foot up, revealing the Lindy doll that had survived both of his impacts. He reached down and picked it up, turning to Vita.

"She's still this popular even after retiring to a desk job?"

Vita shrugged. Crash dusted the doll off, managing to stop it's constant voice action after finding the button and un-sticking it. After a moment, he paused and looked at Vita.

"I told Fox I'd bring her back a souvenir."

Vita resisted the urge to laugh outright.

* * *

The woman introduced herself as Captain Lynn A. Bardou. Call-sign Thanatos One. Third Fleet, Seventh Armada, Special Weapons And Tactics Unit, Shock Enforcers. A small four mage unit under the command of Admiral Kanemitsu Mishima, commander of the D.S.S. Tsunami, and head of the TSAB's Naval task force investigating, or rather hunting down, Sektor Twenty-One.

She replaced Hayate as Crash's partner in the area search after Lieutenant Colonel Yagami was evacuated to the Deep Sky where Shamal could give her medical attention. Crash discovered quickly that the woman was even colder, if it were possible, than Signum. Aside from some commands, she never spoke, unless she was speaking to her device.

Its name was Waldron, a fearsome looking battle axe as long as she was tall. 'Waldron', Crash learned from quiet commentary from the General, meant 'Powerful Raven'. And after seeing how it had cleaved right through the android monstrosity without so much as a thought, he believed it. Despite her cold nature, she wasn't unapproachable like Vita had seemed. However, when she said something, Crash felt the urge to snap to it the way he would around Roland, even though he outranked her.

It took them three hours to find the five remaining AMF Projectors, and with one secured for study, they simply destroyed the rest as they located them. Once they got down to the last one, it became insanely easy to find it in the surviving section of the toy shop Crash had nearly demolished when the android had sent him flying. With the projectors disabled, normal investigative forces quickly poured into the area to assess the damages and casualties, allowing them to head back up to the Deep Sky as it made a few final rounds over the area.

The brief from Lynn was swift and to the point, something that Crash had never experienced from anyone but Roland or Martin. Hayate was 'lucky to be alive' after an encounter with a heavy assault android who's only known identification was 'Zed'... the name it referred to itself as. Zed, as it were, was known for being a tactically intelligent combat machine that would kill Bureau mages with brutal efficiency, and had been linked to a higher tier of the Sektor Twenty-One terrorist activities.

It was quickly decided that the weapons it had been using, while dangerous, were simply a ploy to take them off guard. However, the use of extensive AMF projection capabilities, as well as modified versions of Jail Scagletti's gadget drones was something new. Lynn admitted that this new connection pretty much drew the entire case into the jurisdiction of Riot Force Six. As such, it would be wise to combine resources for a more complete investigation.

But first, they had to get Hayate into a bed. She's suffered several broken ribs, nearly punctured a lung, and minor internal bleeding from the beating Zed had given her. Shamal had stopped the internal bleeding and pretty much dealt with the overall critical aspects of her injuries, but she still needed time to recover.

However, thanks to the timely arrival of Lynn, she'd managed to recover Zed's arm. Lynn had taken one look at it and had marveled, despite her anger. It had been made with the highest technological skill. The steel itself that composed the 'skeletal' components was some of the strongest known, crafted carefully with precision well above even what Jail had to build drones with. The synthetic material disguising the arm was so lifelike, that if it weren't for the metal endoskeleton and electronics, one would think it was a severed arm. Zed was now without a doubt, an extremely well funded, custom-made killing machine.

"The only question to ask now" Hayate had coughed as Mav put the Deep Sky into its sub-orbital climb. "Who exactly has the technological and industrial capability to build such a thing?"

* * *

-BEEEEEEEP-

"Aperture Systems, Gracie Maria speaking..."

The young blond woman spoke into the phone with a genuinely friendly tone, but a look of annoyance flashed across her face as the sun set on her tower room. Who calls at this hour to do business? After a few seconds listening to the person on the other end, she replied.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Phabrizio is in a late meeting... If I could take a message, he'll get back to you."

Jotting down a few notes she made a friendly closure to the conversation and cleared the line. After pausing, she pushed a small red button on console near her, and waited.

After about a minute, a voice replied.

"Yes Gracie?"

Not put off in the slightest by the annoyed tone in the man's voice, Gracie responded promptly.

"Sir, your Eleven-thirty for tomorrow just cancelled," she stated. "You want me to bump up your eleven-forty-five?"

There was a pause on the other end as her boss thought about it, then he responded.

"No, I was looking for a spot to take a quick Lunch, there's too much to do otherwise."

Gracie chirped an affirmative as she brought up a schedule block on her console and crossed it out. After a few seconds, the line clicked off.

* * *

In his office, Marcellus Phabrizio learned back in his chair, back-lit by the gleaming lights of the city behind him, and stared up at the... it seemed to be a man, but wasn't.

"As I was saying," he continued. "You certainly got fucked up."

On the side of the face that was blackened and burned away to reveal polished metal, a glowing orb in a recess that should have been an eye socket flashed slightly.

"The operation had gone exactly as planned," the harsh synthetic tone responded. "The secondary objective was nearly complete when I encountered unexpected interference with the Arrival of Thanatos One right on my position."

Marcellus eyed the robot before him with subtle disdain. Marcellus Phabrizio was a slightly short man. He had black hair, or at least, half his head had black hair, the other half was covered in transparent fiberglass to protect a permanent injury he'd received many years ago from a bumbling TSAB mage. Likewise, he was missing part of his right leg, another result of that mage's actions, it had been replaced with a cybernetic duplicate, which was made obvious as he reclined in his chair and put his feet on his desk.

"Such a mage you should have been able to handle effectively at full capacity," he stated.

"My combat effectiveness was reduced by eighteen percent almost immediately," the robot raised what was left of its right arm. "This damage was inflicted with a single blow. Reinforcements arrived only twenty-four seconds later to assist her. My odds of surviving the engagement were negligible at that point."

Marcellus nodded idly at the missing arm.

"A pity you didn't get to finish off that mage girl..." he continued. "I would have loved to watch the recording of her last moments, over and over. It's just intriguing to watch their face when they realize their magic was beaten by pure technology." He paused, sitting up straight in his chair.

"Now... did you bring me what I asked for?"

The robot merely nodded, its chin barely tilting down before coming level again. Then, with a sudden rapid motion, turned and walked to the corner of the room. With one hand, the robot effortlessly picked up a large bulky case and walked back over to the desk with it. The enormous thud it made as it landed betrayed just how heavy it really was, though Zed made no indication of being hindered in the slightest.

Marcellus swung to his feet and leaned forward, undoing locks on the huge case like some little child unwrapping a birthday gift. After a few moments and one final satisfying click, he grabbed the edges and gave a heave. The case came open gently and he stared at the contents for a few moments before closing it, a Cheshire cat smile plastered on his features.

"Good boy," he began. "You've done very good Zed. Go downstairs and have the guys slap a new arm on and get you some new makeup. As much as I like the polished finish, we can't have just any old TSAB mage noticing someone such as yourself walking down the street, now can we?"

Zed nodded, and turned away, walking purposefully towards the exit to the office. After he exited, Marcellus learned over and hit his intercom switch.

"Gracie."

"Yes sir?"

"Send a note down to the boys in cybernetics, have a right arm replacement for the Z-0001-3325-3689-3 model ready. And hold any other calls unless it's important. I don't want to be disturbed."

"Yes sir..."

After a pause for the line to clear, Marcellus sat back in his chair, turning around to face the dusk. The cityscape before him was his playground. The Aperture Systems Central office was located in the landlocked city of Jillachi, about four-hundred seventy miles southeast of Cranagan, separated by a mountain range that resulted in most of the onshore flow dumping its moisture along the coast, leaving this part of MidChilda drier than most. But the clear, dry air made for spectacular sunsets, and the environment itself meant those who were gruff enough to live in it only cared about themselves... So nobody ever really bothered him.

"So, how many bureau mages did our son catch in his little outing Gladdis?" he asked apparently nobody at all.

"About twenty, all said and done," the synthetic feminine voice instantly vibrated from everywhere at once. "What do you think we should do with them this time?"

Marcellus pushed slightly with his foot, just barely tilting his chair back and forth as he put his arms behind his head and leaned back, the chair reclining as he did so. In his mind, profiteering schemes dashed around as he thought of how he could make the most money out of it. After a moment, he smiled as he came to a conclusion.

"Ship them to group six and hold them for ransom, either the Bureau will pay handsomely for their safe return, or we can watch the action on the news, either way, we profit."

"Of course dear," the female voice responded. "And what of group six itself should things take the latter course?"

Marcellus shrugged as he watched the last glow of MidChilda's sun disappear behind the mountains in the distance. "They can eat cake for all I care..."

"I had sent them a message that they would be getting a nice chocolate/coconut frosting cake in a few days to help their morale," the AI voice continued. "I lied of course."

Marcellus smirked. "Yes, that cake was a wonderful lie, unlike the great Pi... such a beautiful equation, do you think not?"

"A most delicious calculation," Gladdis responded. "I simply feel I must calculate it every time you mention it."

"Such a sweet victory," Marcellus grinned, and fell silent.

After a few seconds, he spoke again.

"Gladdis..."

"Yes dear?"

"Sing me a song."

There was silence for several seconds, then Gladdis began in a very soft and high tone.

"This was a triumph..."

"I'm making a note here... huge success."

"It's hard to overstate my satisfaction..."

"Aperture Systems."

The feminine voice was joined by a slight increase in percussion.

"We do what we want, because, we can."

Marcellus started to tap his foot to the beat.

"For the good of all of us... "

"Except the ones who are dead."

And then Marcellus joined the AI voice in a light chorus.

"But there's no sense whining over every white lie."

"You just keep on trying, since you'll always have Pi."

"And the science gets done, and you make a neat gun, for the people who are still alive!"

Some people would say Marcellus was married to his work. This wouldn't be too far from the truth if they only KNEW the truth. If it were even remotely possible for this businessman to love anything other than money itself, it would only seem appropriate that he considered Gladdis, the Aperture Systems Central AI Computer, his wife. This image could only further be reinforced by the way they constantly addressed each other in private, or more importantly, by the way he got up and danced around his office for the next two minutes while she sang a song for him. As bizarre as this was, nobody who knew dared question him on it. The last person to do so... well. The TSAB had yet to find the body.

It was the urgent beeping of the intercom that brought Marcellus back down to some semblance of reality. Gladdis quickly fell silent as Marcellus walked briskly back to his desk and hit the intercom, putting it on speaker as he walked back across the room to fix a knick-knack he'd knocked over in his hurry.

"I thought I said not to be disturbed Gracie," he stated in an annoyed tone.

"I know you said not to be disturbed unless it was important sir," came the response in an apologetic tone. "You also told me that if it's Mr. Kage, it's always important... And Mr. Kage is here to see you sir."

Marcellus froze and looked in the door, then quickly straightened up, fixing his clothing as he went.

"Right then, well send him in!"

"I already am."

Marcellus jumped and spun around. His chair was facing the window, but it was obviously filled with someone where it hadn't been only seconds ago. Or at least, that's what he'd thought. Mr. Kage, as the only name (Obviously fake, the name existed nowhere in any databases... period.) the man had given calmly rotated the chair around to face him. The mask he wore concealed his face ever so completely, save for his yellow eyes, which seemed despite the tone of his 'greeting', to look like they were in a lazy mood.

"Mr. Kage," Marcellus nodded, slightly uncomfortably. The masked man always seemed to have a way to make him feel uncomfortable, even if he was technically a partner in their endeavors. It had to be that icy cool exterior he always presented. 'Mr. Kage', merely nodded at Marcellus' greeting before turning his head to the recently opened case.

"It seems the mission was a success..." he stated. The voice was of course, as fake as the name, run through some kind of modulator. Marcellus kept toying with the thought of Mr. Kage being related to Darth Vader.

"Yes," he managed to respond after a moment. For the time being, that uneasiness was fading. "Zed completed his primary objective without any problems at all. He didn't succeed with the side task of taking out any strong mages and got a bit tore up from it, but otherwise, no problems."

The masked man nodded. "Very good, then I guess we're all set to go for phase two then?"

Marcellus nodded. "I need a day to prepare for it, but the assigned groups already know what to grab, and where to get it once we start. Barring any unforeseen setbacks, we'll be right on schedule."

"Our window of opportunity for this will not last long," the masked man stated. "I was surprised myself that we would be able to move the timetable up so quickly. When it begins, we need every single salvaged drone for the job. The location is one of the most secure places on the planet."

"Do you want me to send Zed with them just in case things don't go as planned?" Marcellus grinned imagining pitiful mages falling to the hands of his modern marvel.

"No..." the masked man stated after a pause. "This is too important a job, and too great a risk for just anyone. I will oversee this myself."

Marcellus did a double take.

"I hope that's your version of a joke," he stated. "But you've never cracked a joke. Seriously?"

The masked man nodded, raising a finely gloved hand.

"One day, we go. Ready or not."

"Then we will be ready," Marcellus nodded curtly. He then reached down to his desk and flicked a switch. A large section of the wall on one side of the room began to slide up out of sight, revealing an extension to the already extensively large office. The masked man then noticed the figure of Admiral Chrono standing on the other side and began to jump up out of the chair he'd been in. But after a second, he realized it was merely a life sized, and very lifelike duplicate of the Admiral.

"We will be ready," Marcellus restated. "And the grunts will be ready too."

He walked over to a table where a strange looking tan camouflaged pod sat conspicuously.

"Vwa-la... The MH-1..."

With the click of a remote, sections of the pod folded in on itself, and then it split open and stacked up, revealing to be some kind of device inspired gun. Marcellus reached down and picked it up easily, spinning about.

"It's light... Handle's adjustable for easy carrying, good for righties and lefties, breaks down into four parts undetectable by magic sensors. Ideal for surprising TSAB lackeys before they can fight back."

As he said that, he walked with the weapon back to his desk before coming to a stop.

"A word on capability," he continued, flipping a switch. The weapon expanded again. "Advanced Tracker Rounds, the ultimate answer to the problem of magical homing bullets. If magic can do it, so can we.... ONE SHOT!"

He spun around and shot the Admiral Chrono figure, blowing a spiked shoulder pad right off.

"And even if he blocks it with a barrier, these babies will chase him all over the field."

Marcellus turned and went full auto right in the Masked man's face. The man tried to jump back but realized all the rounds were curving right around in mid air and ripping the Chrono to shreds.

"And to finish the job," he continued after a second. "Anything a mage can do... RIOT CANNON"

There was a whine, and then a wicked looking bolt of lightning suddenly scorched the Chrono figure.

"Sniper Laser..."

He turned and suddenly a large hole was burned in the Chrono's head, and then it expanded.

"...With wide and narrow beam settings."

After he was sure Chrono was headless, he went on to the next feature.

"The infamous AMF Projector, guaranteed to slow down any mage..."

A simple barrier generator set up next to 'Chrono' suddenly went out.

"The always efficient Flame Thrower,"

The room suddenly got extremely warm as near plasma temperature flames lashed out and roasted the Admiral Chrono Figure where it stood, after he let up, Marcellus turned to the masked man.

"A classic."

"And if things get a little too hot," he stated, turning around. "A little toy I like to call... Frostbite."

The weapon jerked and suddenly the scorched Chrono figure sprouted icicles and a frozen arm snapped off.

Marcellus slowly turned around with a smile, receiving a slow deliberate clap from his one man audience.

"I've already got three-hundred of these babies made, and another batch of four-hundred on the way. I can have them in the hands of the fruitcakes with plenty of time to give the Bureau all the hell it can handle."

"Most impressive," the masked man nodded. "A wide range of combat abilities to match the mages, without having to rely on a single sparkle of magic. Just make sure if they get picked up by the TSAB, they can't be traced back to you. You know how well they can do that kind of thing."

"You run your part, I'll run mine," Marcellus stated with a smirk. "I planned for such eventualities. Any mage with an active barrier jacket picks a Mage Hunter One up by the handle without pressing the little red button on the bottom of the gun, is in for a nasty surprise."

'Mr. Kage', nodded slowly behind his mask. "Then we are prepared."

"As we'll ever be," Marcellus smirked, setting the MH-1 down on its stand again. "Our inside guy just needs the signal, and we'll have free run of the place."

"Then it is settled," the man stated. And with that, he stood up and walked calmly to the door. "We will begin late tomorrow night..."

"Ah, an early morning attack," Marcellus stated, turning towards his window. "We'll catch most of them asleep easily. It'll-"

As he turned back, he found himself alone. Not a sign of 'Mr. Kage' anywhere, the main doors hadn't even opened. After a few seconds pause, he walked over and hit the button on his intercom.

"Yes Mr. Phabrizio?"

"Gracie," Marcellus began. "Mr. Kage has stepped out for the night. You can go ahead and head on home early, I won't be dealing with anyone else."

"Yes Mr. Phabrizio... have a good night sir."

After a few moments, the line clicked off, and Marcellus turned to his window, clasping his hands behind his back. He stood there for several minutes in total silence before he suddenly spoke up.

"Gladdis."

"Yes dear?"

"A change of plan..." he smirked. "Those Bureau mages... execute them. All of them. They're just a liability anyway."

"Anything else dear?"

Marcellus paused in thought, but smiled again as he continued. "Yes actually, I feel like another song... play... " he froze and furrowed his brow in concentration. "What was that Earth song? Ca... cow? Cal..."

He frowned... he'd remember eventually.


	7. Chapter 7: The City of Towers

"Caaaalifornia Love..."

****

7:00 PM

Cranagan City

West Coast District

"Angel Flight One Five Delta, altitude indicates one thousand two hundred... LOW ALTITUDE ALERT. Climb IMMEDIATELY. Angel Flight One Five Delta, climb IMMEDIATELY."

Known as the capital city of MidChilda, and home to the Time Space Administration Bureau's ground command, Cranagan could probably be called one of the most important cities in all of known dimensional space. Located along the western coast of MidChilda's northern continent, this sprawling urban complex is the heart and soul of all things TSAB. A person from Earth would probably relate the city to the massive urban sprawl of Los Angeles, California, with a congested feel of Tokyo Japan.

Cranagan is a huge city. Spread out from the half-kilometer high Administration Bureau Tower complex at its heart and crisscrossed by highways that the average LA goer would be all too familiar with. While at the same time, the density of buildings in Cranagan is enough to turn panoramic daytime shots of the city gray with concrete.

With the density and sprawl of the city, transportation is quite the issue. Despite a surprising thirty percent of the city being some abandoned districts, it has a daytime population density of around two THOUSAND persons per square kilometer, and every one of them need to get home and go to work just like anyone else.

Getting them there, is the job of Cranagan's extensive transportation network, the Cranagan Metropolitan Transit Authority. The CMTA operates the single largest mass transit system in Administrated Space. Operating with a myriad of light rail, monorail, subway lines, busses, and super highways as well as a major air, sea, and space port and acting as the local hub for the Time Space Administration Bureau. The mass transit network is actually so well planned and operated, that despite the density and sprawl, highway traffic has never looked half as bad as it's Earthen counterparts.

In fact, thanks to the smooth running of the CMTA, average traffic density during rushour on the main highways rarely causes delays or reduces the average travel speed of vehicles on the road. At all other times, traffic is so light, that most smaller highways and back roads have only token traffic to deal with at the most. For someone used to the kind of traffic that plagues Los Angeles, it's a driver's heaven. Coastal Highway One, which only out of coincidence shares its identification with California's coastal highway, is one such road. Running north/south along the coastline, it passes behind Riot Force Six's headquarters building and winds along miles of beaches. At just past sundown however, the beaches tend to be mostly abandoned, leaving what little daytime traffic this road would have far behind and presenting a clean run for any given vehicle.

For a pair of Joyriding girls named Tiana and Subaru, it was the perfect sunset drive as they wound northward along the road.

"YEEEEEEAHHHHHH!!!!" Subaru shouted over the wind. "Faster Tia!"

Tia smirked over her shoulder at the other girl as they raced along on Vice's personal motorcycle.

"It's nice to have a day off that doesn't get interrupted," she responded to her partner's excitement.

"No kidding!" Subaru affirmed. "Remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah... that kind of ruined the day," Tiana responded. "But it couldn't be helped."

"I know, I know," Subaru frowned, then smiled again. "Hey! I have an idea! Let's get some ice cream on our way back!"

"AGAIN?" Tia gasped over her shoulder. "Where do you put those things anyway?"

Subaru giggled. "Inherent Skill number two! Ice Cream Queen!"

"I thought that one was Brain Freeze..." Tia rolled her eyes. "Which would explain a thing or two..."

"HEY!"

"Alright! Alright!" Tia quickly relented before it could escalate while she was driving. "We'll stop by Calypso's Sweet Tooth on the way back and get you the biggest sundae you can possibly eat. Satisfied?"

"YEAAAAAAAAH!" Subaru shouted into the wind. Ice Cream was her one true weakness. They continued on in silence for a moment longer. Coming onto a long stretch of road that ran along side one of Cranagan's many coastal beaches. Despite the roar of the wind and the bike they were riding, Subaru's acute, cyberneticly enhanced hearing was the first to notice the unusual rumbling sound that seemed to rattle her teeth. With alarming speed, the noise began to climb to a dull roar that drowned out even the wind. Cranking her head around, the type zero human/cyborg's eyes widened at the sight behind her.

"AWESOME!!!!"

Tia, more concerned with the road, allowed her eyes to wander to the mirror in curiosity as Subaru's exclamation managed to make itself heard over the noise. Her mouth fell open at what she saw. Aside from the usual 'Objects in Mirror are closer than they appear' bit, what was coming up behind them was big, gray, triangular, loud, and most importantly... big.

"EHHHH!?!??"

Tia's right hand reflexively clamped solid on the brake lever of the motorcycle, locking the back tire and sending the bike into a long noisy skid. The roar of the aircraft reached ear-splitting volume as it overtook and shot over the top of them. The ground itself shook in protest as the four cruiser thrusters on the underside dished out untold amounts of thrust, backblast from its low flight kicking up a dust and sand cloud on the parallel beach.

As the roar started to die with its increasing distance, Tia could hear Subaru howling with delight as the aircraft continued northward.

"NICE! NICE!!! TIA DID YOU SEE THAT?! THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"How could I not?" Tia asked with a shaken laugh, sticking a finger in one of her ears to try and alleviate the slight ringing. "How could anyone MISS something that LOUD?"

"LOUD?!" Subaru grinned. "That was like... the sound of FREEDOM or something! AWESOME! Let's find out what it is!"

Tia sighed... Ice Cream could wait. She was curious too, and quickly threw the motorcycle back into gear.

* * *

Fifteen Kilometers to the North, Cranagan's Coastal Airport Air Traffic Controller repeated his warning for possibly the tenth time, since Mav brought the Deep Sky in on a shallow final approach. Designated 'Angel Flight 15-D' in the civilian Comm channels, the moronic civilian controller seemed not to understand that this flight had wounded onboard, and he was instructed to come in softly to prevent aggravation of Hayate's injuries. He was plainly aware of being less than a thousand feet off the waves as he passed over the bay area just short of the airport runway as he cycled the wings into a wide position. Yet several times the Air Traffic Controller seemed to think he knew better than a combat pilot did.

"-GEL FLIGHT ONE FIVE DELTA YOU ARE DANGER LOW! CLIMB IMMEDIATELY!"

"Angel Flight One Five Delta, Cranagan Tower, do I have clearance to land or not?"

"Angel Flight One Five Delta, Clearance is granted, however your altitude still indica-"

"Thank you, I'll be flying the plane goodbye," Mav cut the line almost the moment he finished. Normally cutting off the Air Traffic Control would mean total confusion, but he already knew where he'd be taxiing the Deep Sky after touchdown. Arrangements had been made in-flight twenty minutes ago.

Gears down, wings wide, flaps down, throttle back, nose up. Deep Sky came in shallow, rear gear screeching as they hit the runway. A few seconds later, Mav dropped the nose and the modified B-1b made full contact with the runway, immediately losing speed as he threw the thrusters into reverse. In seconds, the Deep Sky (Angel Flight 15-D) had dropped from flight speed to a rapid taxi velocity as the powerful cruiser thrusters applied orbit achieving energy to slow its momentum.

Working efficiently, Mav pulled Deep Sky off the runway and entered one of the airport Taxiways without so much as coming to a halt, running smoothly on the skill of a vehicle pilot who knew where he was going and what he was doing like it was second nature. The aerospacecraft quickly rolled to a specially isolated section of the airport, where Storm Raider was already waiting with Vice at the controls. He'd come back to Cranagan hours ago after the Deep Sky had launched for Selene. After receiving word on arrival time and location, he'd quickly helped arrange for a quick transfer to expedite everyone back to RF6. Yet he still had to suppress a little drooling as the Deep Sky's goose like neck purposefully rolled up meters from the less graceful looking JF-704.

With a final shudder, the Deep Sky came to a complete stop, the engines already shutting down as Mav killed the power. Vice tapped a control, opening the boarding ramp on Storm Raider as Deep Sky's back ramp did likewise. Over the quieter whine of the JF-704's idling engines, Roland quickly jogged out and towards the landing gear, carrying several chalks and placing them under the wheels to prevent the aerospacecraft from rolling at some later point. Confused onlookers standing in the airport terminal could only watch as a flurry of activity occurred half way across the tarmac.

Lynn stepped calmly down the ramp first, still in full barrier jacket gear and Holding Waldron with a critical look in her eyes. Nanoha and Fate quickly flanked her as they took to the skies themselves. Placing herself between the two boarding ramps, she clanged Waldron to the ground and scanned her surroundings, looking to be the most unpleasant thing anyone would like to meet.

Shamal and Rein came out second, Hayate being ferried in a break down emergency wheelchair that had been stowed in the Deep Sky's storage compartment. Mav sprinted out next, carrying another set of Chalks as he raced to the nose Gear of deep sky while Roland began on the second rear set.

Signum and Vita jogged out next, glancing around as if pulling security, but found nothing of interest and quickly jogged to join Shamal in securing Hayate on Storm Raider. Crash came last, turning off the ramp and shouting something at the General. Roland looked and waved his arms, shouting something nobody could hear over the various engine noises. Crash nodded and walked back up the ramp into the Deep Sky. He returned a moment later with a large pod shaped object in his arms and half-jogged over to Storm Raider and boarded the ramp.

The chalks in place, Mav did a quick circle of the deep sky before meeting up with Roland, who in turn had dashed over to the boarding ramp and hit a button to seal it. After that, they both jogged over to Storm Raider's boarding ramp, Roland waving at Lynn, who picked up her device and calmly made her way to the ramp as Vice started cycling the rotors up to speed.

Once everyone was onboard, the ramp sealed itself as the rotors reached flight speed. A moment later Vice gently lifted Storm Raider off the Tarmac and turned the helicopter southwards towards RF6 headquarters. Nanoha and Fate fell into formation a safe distance to each side as the JF-704 hiked its tail up and began to put on speed. Onlookers who kept track noted the scene had only taken two minutes on the ground.

About four kilometers south of the airport, Subaru and Tia came to a stop at an intersection as they both noticed Nanoha and Fate escorting Storm Raider with their respective pink and yellow magical contrails. Without speaking, they both looked at each other and nodded. Tia brought the bike around carefully as Storm Raider thumped overhead. With twist of the hand throttle, they sped off, backtracking back south the way they came towards RF6 HQ.

* * *

"One side, make a hole, wounded coming through THANK YOU…" Roland was simply THE ball of charm as he made his way down the hall from the helipad at RF6. He'd forgotten in his time out at McGreggor, just how… undisciplined the half-civilian staff of a typical TSAB facility could be. This was made obvious when it seemed that half the support staff of RF6 were up on the floor trying to find out what exactly had put their commander, Hayate, in a wheel chair.

"YES," Roland snapped at the staff members before they could ask. "She got hurt, and YES, she'll be fine… Mind doing me a favor and getting out of the way?"

Roland continued to work his way forward through the shocked staff members. Half the RF6 support staff were civilian, but the people bonded like family in these facilities. So with a combination of a lacking in discipline, and genuine concern, they were somehow… all up here rather quick. Damn internal grapevines, bad news travels fast.

Hayate was right behind him, being pushed along quickly by Shamal. She was used to attention, she was used to the doting… but most of all, familiar with this kind of situation.

"I don't think that's necessary sir," she tried to laugh, though that kind of hurt. "It's not like I need to be rushed into surgery or anything."

"I'll satisfy myself with making sure you get some decent bed-rest for the next few days," the General snapped, glaring at a custodian who loitered too long in his path. The young woman quickly remembered something she had to do on the first floor. "I swear, they act like they've never seen a GENERAL before…"

He emphasized the rank nice and loud. And that seemed to be when everyone actually noticed the rank insignia on his shoulders. Trying not to look like they were fearing for their careers, the staffers Roland hadn't already intimidated off the floor quickly cleared the area, each remembering an equally trivial task they neglected in their duties. The hall didn't clear out immediately, but the breakup and 'casual' clearing was quick none-the-less.

"Better," Roland took a deep breath. "I guess it really does work anywhere… put the fear of inspection in them and they find something to do right quick. I'm glad I remembered that trick from Ft. Hood."

"Hayate!"

Shari came wandering in from a side hall after noticing the commotion going on, however, just as Hayate opened her mouth to acknowledge the technician, she was beaten to the punch by Roland's own sharp response.

"What? Did you not GET THE HINT?" he barked, raising his voice. He couldn't really tell who had come or gone in the previous commotion, but things were becoming extremely agitating. "SCRAM!"

"It's okay sir!" Hayate jumped in, noting the edginess in the General's voice. "I need to talk with her anyway…"

Roland paused, looking lost for the first time that day.

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's okay sir," Shari consoled the General, giving him a quick friendly salute. "I hear you've had a rough afternoon… Speaking of rough," she turned to Hayate. "They weren't kidding when they said you got put right back in a wheel chair."

Hayate laughed a little, embarrassed.

"I'm perfectly fine," she responded. "I just got a little careless on the ground."

Shari tilted her head. Wheelchair, upper torso wrapped in bandages, black eye, swollen lip, plenty of bruising…

"Careless? It looks like you got into a fist-fight with Subaru and forgot you had magic."

"It might as well had been that way," Nanoha piped up as she approached the group from behind, Crash and the others in tow. His face obscured by the large pod he was holding. "She got ambushed by a robot."

"There's MORE Combat Cyborgs?!" Shari gasped. "I thought we accounted for all of them!"

"She meant it exactly as she said it," Lynn's voice corrected her. "Lt. Col. Yagami was attacked by an advanced form of inorganic assault android. If I had been only a second later, she might not be in that wheelchair, but in a casket."

Shari gaped open mouthed at the group, switching back and forth from one person to the next for a moment.

"Zed, as it is named" Fate joined in. "Appears to be extremely strong, very fast, is intelligent enough to plot military strategy, and has built in AMF generating capacities."

Lynn nodded silently with Fate's assessment. Shari's face fell into an almost disbelieving smile as she stared at the group.

"You guys must be trouble magnets," she shook her head. "Just when you think things couldn't get any more messy…"

"Well, we DID manage to get a piece of it in the exchange," Hayate interrupted, keeping Shari from recalling any previous escalations. It worked, the technician's eyes went from bemused, to curious in a heartbeat.

"A piece?" she asked.

Lynn stepped forward and held out a severed mechanical arm. Shari reflexively jumped back due to its lifelike nature, but then leaned in and examined it, adjusting her glasses as she did so.

"I managed to get myself a bit of souvenir from Zed when I launched my counter-attack," Lynn informed her. "Perhaps now we can figure out who made him, and why."

"This is INCREDIBLE," Shari gasped, standing up straight again. "The synthetic flesh mimic material, the high tensile strength steels, the precision workmanship on the endoskeleton components look to be the highest level of professional standards. And that's just glancing at it!" Shari turned to the group.

"This may actually be better quality work than even the cybernetic parts in Subaru's arm when I had to repair it!"

"What's better than my arm?"

Shari turned around, Subaru and Tia both walking quickly up the corridor she'd come from.

"Oh," Shari turned, slightly embarrassed. "Welcome back you two."

"We were discussing the assault android we encountered at Selene," Nanoha informed them. "We managed to recover its arm before it escaped."

"Looks like it did a number on you commander," Tia commented, covering a gawk with a sideways glance. As she did so, she noticed the rank patches on Roland's shoulders, snapped to attention, and saluted. "Sir!" Noticing her reaction, Subaru quickly followed.

"Carry on," Roland waved it off, looking agitated.

"I've had worse," Hayate continued. "This is just a scratch."

Vita scoffed and then shut herself up.

"So you got its arm?" Subaru stepped past her teammate and examined the item in question for a second. "Nice. I guess disarmament is your specialty huh?"

Lynn didn't even crack a smile. If anything, her frown deepened. Laughing half heatedly at her own joke, Subaru fell back.

"ERHEM…" Crash cleared his throat audibly. "Hate to break up the reunion, but…"

Everyone turned to the ignored test pilot. Crash managed to shift his hand and get a new grip on the large pod he was holding while it tried to slip out of his grip.

"This thing isn't light," he continued. "A little help here?"

"I got it!" Subaru chimed in, using this as an excuse to get away from Lynn's disapproving scowl. She quickly cleared the space, and made a grab for the pod, but Crash immediately started to back away.

"I don't think," he began, noticing he had a significant physical size advantage on the girl. Subaru quickly closed and latched on however.

"It's fine," she assured him.

"Wait, you sure you can-"

"Nothing to it," Subaru cut him off, lifting the pod. To Crash's mild surprise, she not only deftly lifted it, but almost picked him up off the ground as well before he let go. Hefting it effortlessly, she turned to the group.

"See?" she smiled. "Easy."

Crash openly gaped at the young lady showing strength an order of magnitude higher than his own, as he put it humbly, 'moderately fit body'.

While he looked back and forth between Subaru and General Roland for an answer, Shari asked another question.

"So what's that?"

"That's the other item we collected," Hayate nodded at the pod Subaru was handling in a manner in which Crash thought was totally insane. "The area around the power plant at Selene was covered by a blanket AMF produced by eight of those projectors. It essentially cleared the place out."

"Wide area AMF generator?" Shari adjusted her glasses again. "Jail didn't have anything like that at his disposal."

"So where do you want it?" Subaru asked.

"In my lab," Shari responded. "I'll get started on it immediately!"

"Excellent!" Hayate smiled, quickly wheeling herself clear of Shamal. "I'd like to take a look at it myself and see what makes that thing tick."

"Oh no you don't," Roland stuck his boot right in front of Hayate's wheel, blocking her from rolling any further as Subaru quickly hauled the projector pod down the side hall, Tia in tow.

"You're not going anywhere but to bed…" he continued as Hayate momentarily looked like she got caught in a mousetrap. "After the beating you took, you'd best do as the doctor prescribes."

Hayate laughed nervously and quickly turned a begging look at Nanoha, who nodded at the General's advice. Despite her familiarity with this scenario, Hayate knew she had about a snowflake's chance in hell of doing anything, no matter how much she might protest. Given Nanoha's attitude to the situation, and that Vita, Shamal, and Signum where about ten times more protective of her… best to give in.

"Okay… I guess I'm going to bed then," she shrugged.

"Good decision," Roland nodded, receiving equally approving nods from the other girls. After a few seconds, Shari dismissed herself and followed after Subaru. The rest of them continued down the hall towards Hayate's room.

"How?" Crash mouthed, still confused.

Lynn stopped and looked at Crash, then down to her hand, and turned to him, handing the severed cybernetic arm over.

"They forgot this," she stated. "Perhaps you can find out by delivering it to them."

Crash nodded deftly as he followed after the tech going down the hall she'd originally come from.

"Hmm…" Lynn cocked her eyebrow for just a moment.

* * *

After ferrying Hayate to her room, and the redundant comments of 'get some rest' from the others, the girls quickly dispersed past Roland. Lynn posted herself just outside the Lt. Colonel's door, placing her axe, Waldron, on the floor beside her with a metal clank.

"Do you ever smile?" Roland asked. Lynn turned her gaze to the General, who'd drifted off to the side while the girls cleared away, his agitation easing slightly as Hayate got herself into a bed.

"I generally don't smile on the job," Lynn admonished. "My work is not something I can be 'happy' about in a conventional sense."

"I find happiness can be doing your job right and calling it a good day," the General shrugged.

"My job is strictly attack and counter-attack of high risk, high threat adversaries," she responded. "A good day for me is where all I do is train for a bad one. If I have to be out there doing my job, it's hardly something to be happy about."

"Point," Roland nodded. "My old job was like that a lot of the time. But still, it doesn't hurt to smile, or at least smirk, when things go your way."

Lynn considered the General's comment, then smirked in acknowledgment. Roland's eyebrow shot up.

"So it CAN smile… a little."

Lynn couldn't help but smile ever so slightly more at the cheap joke. Roland nodded as he turned to his full height, then sighed as if he were preparing to announce the end of the world, then turned his serious face to Lynn, who instantly dropped her weak smile.

"Let me talk with Yagami alone for a moment," Roland instructed. Lynn nodded and resumed per position outside the door as the General stepped inside. After a moment, it slid shut.

"I'm sorry," Roland immediately stated once they were alone. "I failed you."

Hayate stared at the test base commander for several seconds.

"What are you talking about?"

Roland looked down. "I damn near chewed you out about being proactive, about being prepared and ready for anything, and when it came down to the call. I made an error, and it got you hurt."

There was a pause…

"No!" Hayate waved it off. "No, it's not your fault sir. You elected to let me do my job, this is a hazard of doing my job."

"Bullshit!" Roland snapped, surprising Hayate again. "We both knew I had the authority to make any and every call I wanted, but I avoided it out of professional courtesy. I neglected to take charge of a situation when I realized we were dealing with more than just some fancy thug. When every piece of evidence was warning us all that the opposition that made their move at Selene was well prepared to take down one, if not MANY, high level mages. We continued to treat the situation as a police operation when we should have, I should have, immediately treated it like a military operation."

Roland crossed his arms over his chest, looking sad as he'd done in his office hours earlier.

"I let idealism get in the way of years of experience in my judgement, and it almost cost you your life."

"Sir," Hayate shook her head. "You weren't responsible, you know that, you expressly stated that you wanted me to do my job, not for you to do my job. You can't possibly be blaming yourself for my own mistake."

Roland sighed and walked over to the window. Cranagan was a sight at night.

"You're right, but you're wrong," He breathed. "True, you made the mistake, you paid for the mistake. But it was my mistake not to correct your mistake before it became critical. That's the responsibility of a commander. When you make a mistake that I know is a mistake, it is my duty to ensure that you are informed of such a mistake, and the actions to correct it. In this way, every mistake, is ultimately my fault. I was there. Thus, it was my mistake. I failed."

"Hind sight is always twenty/twenty," Hayate quoted the adage. "What should we have done in your opinion?"

"Exactly what I had done the moment you got blitzed," he responded. "I dropped everyone in range on that position like an artillery strike and called in reinforcements. When that robot ducked into the building…" Roland turned to Hayate, his eyes narrow. "I should have had you all LEVEL it."

Hayate obviously didn't think much of that option.

"An opponent," Roland continued. "Cunning enough for a multi layer trap, has already potentially slaughtered hundreds, armed to the teeth, and seemed to make it past not one, but TWO of your high level spells… the escalation of force was shockingly clear. I should have taken command, had your entire unit converge, and taken the robotic bastard out with enough firepower to make Hiroshima shit their pants again... No offense."

"None taken," Hayate blanched. "I think we came out okay for the situation, it could have been worse."

Roland nodded.

"Yes… but we got lucky," He stated. "I prefer to make my own luck. And I feel I have to make it up to you…"

"You really don't have to-" Hayate began.

"No," Roland walked over to her bed and learned over it. Hayate had this funny impression in her mind of an overly protective father being concerned after his daughter got mugged just a few hundred feet from home. "Once I get involved, I STAY involved. That's my commitment to my self, my friends, and my troops. From now on, wherever this investigation may take you, I can assure you that you will have the resources of the greater McGreggor Archipelago and the BEST force at your disposal, and my backing."

Hayate couldn't help it. She suppressed a laugh (Those hurt too much.) but smiled.

"Thank you, that's… generous."

Roland stuck his hand out.

"I wouldn't have it any other way for a friend," he intoned. Hayate hesitated at the subtle implication, but then grasped his outstretched hand. It was large, and his grip was firm, but gentle. Roland gave it a light, classical shake before she spoke up again.

"And if you have any suggestions in the future, don't be afraid to let us know," she stated. "I'm sure your perspective on events is something that should never be ignored," and she let her hand drop.

"Then we'll start with this suggestion," Roland straightened up. "Bed Rest, for three days as per Shamal's assessment. This is an order from a senior officer. If you so much as leave your quarters… I'll court-martial your ass for insubordination. Are we clear?"

Hayate openly gawked at Roland.

"Lt. Colonel Yagami," Roland raised an eyebrow. "I asked you a question."

"Y… Yessir!" she snapped a salute. Roland returned it with equal snap.

"Good," he said in a very 'official' tone, then nodded. "Get well soon, and good night."

And with that, he was out the door in a blur of motion.

"What did…" Hayate mouthed to nobody. What just happened?

* * *

"Just put it over there," Shari stated as she entered the lab. Subaru obeyed the senior technician as she followed her in, quickly meandering over to a large lab table and placing the projector pod down with a metal thud. Tia and Crash filed in after them, the latter still half-gawking at the apparent inhuman strength presented before him. But within a few seconds, Crash's eyes were darting around the room, silently taking stock of many small gadgets and gizmos and computer banks. He immediately regretted the decision to chase after them.

Having been isolated on McGreggor for the last few years, he'd forgotten just how much fancy high tech gear was in a normal TSAB device management lab. The test facility occupying an aging, one hundred fifty year old Mid-Childan military base, Crash had become used to the drab grays of reinforced concrete, heavy bunkers, and very simplified layout. Part original design; part the work of Don to 'Crash Proof' the test facilities. Shari's lab, in contrast to the dull and quiet test facility, almost seemed alive with the hum of its equipment. Alive, and hungry.

Instinctively, Crash edged his way towards a spot in the room that was equally farthest away from any equipment he could possibly touch. The last thing he needed to cap this day off was to bring half the building down by breathing on the spectroscope in the corner wrong. Crash blinked, shifting thoughts. A spectroscope? As analogue and low tech as those were, they were EVERYWHERE. It must be one of those 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' kind of things.

Speaking of broke… Crash looked down at the severed mechanical arm in his grasp.

"Where do you want this thing?" he asked, holding it up where the other three could see it.

"Just toss it to Subaru over there," Shari responded, not even bothering to look as she rifled through a desk in the corner.

Crash mulled over the thought for a moment… Then, very, VERY carefully, gave a light underarm toss. Subaru, gaping at the most pathetically careful throw she'd ever seen, almost forgot to catch the arm as it sailed nearly right into her face. It was only at the last second that she remembered what she was doing, and snapped the robotic arm out of the air with inhumanly predatory reflexes.

"What's with you?" she asked. Crash shrugged.

"I just don't want to drop it," he lied. Really, he didn't want to cause some catastrophic chain reaction.

"No problem there!" Subaru smiled, and started twirling the arm around like a malformed baton. Tia resisted the urge to slap her hand to her face… Inevitably, this could only go one way.

Subaru fumbled the arm, and ended up kicking it under a rather large and heavy looking piece of equipment.

"Idiot…" Tia shook her head. "You're going to break things in here at this rate."

Crash immediately suspected otherwise, but kept his mouth shut.

"Sorry," Subaru sulked. Tia shook her head and walked over.

"Up," she nodded. Subaru bounced right back from her sulk and bent down. Grasping the large piece of equipment, she gave a heave and lifted it off the ground. Tia stepped under it and snatched up the false arm with a look of utter disdain before quickly (but not the least bit nervously) stepping out again. Subaru set the machine down with a loud clang and a screech as she pushed it back into place. Crash gaped open mouthed at the spectacle, his eye just barely twitching.

"How the HELL do you manage that?" he finally asked. "I have to wear a half ton powered suit to get that kind of physical strength, and I know mages don't use magic casually for every day lifting activity."

"Well," Shari joined in, now typing away at a data terminal. "Subaru's a little unique in that respect, what with a reinforced metal ceramic endoskeleton and semi-synthetic muscle materials several times the density of a human's. What she's demonstrated in here is nothing. Subaru could throw you several dozen meters straight up in the air if she really wanted to."

"I see," Crash nodded as Tia quietly scolded the other girl for her carelessness. "So what kind of crazy surgical mods do I have to get to get that kind of strength? I could use the ability to bench a truck from time to time."

"Oh, you can't get those kind of physical enhancements through surgery," Shari laughed. "You'd need to practically be born with it or have it done from an extremely young age…"

"Right…" Crash shook his head. "So who exactly gets super human strength surgery at a young age?"

"A Combat Cyborg," Shari shrugged.

Thump.

It was Crash's foot, which he'd been tapping in agitation of wanting to get out of this lab, but that last time it came down harder than normal. The sound was enough to snap Tia and Subaru out of their private conversation.

"Run that by me one more time?" he asked.

Shari turned around to face him.

"She is, according to data, a type zero engineered bio-cybernetic combat life form."

"Really?" Crash smirked in an attempt to hide this rapidly tightening feeling in his chest.

"Really-really," Shari concluded.

"That makes sense then," he responded. "I mean, lifting this heavy equipment like it was nothing and all, why didn't I think of it myself?"

"Most people don't expect it," Shari shrugged, turning back to her terminal.

"Well, I guess that's true," Crash agreed, fighting off his jaw trying to clench up. "But, anyway, I should let you go ahead and get started on- ARGH!"

Crash had been steadily meandering his way back towards the door, but unfortunately, with the sudden onset of stress, failed to remember one of the odd pieces of equipment he'd had to go around upon entering the lab. Now as he made his abrupt turn to leave, he tumbled head first over the top of it with a loud crash of metal.

As it would happen. The part he fell over had a clipboard sitting partially off the edge, which in turn was partially wedged under a tray of half disassembled device components. As a net result, when Crash's arm came slapping down in an effort to catch his fall, the basic principles of leverage took over, the edge of the machine acting as a fulcrum. The tray of device parts quickly found itself airborne, flinging its contents in all directions.

One such object barely missed smashing into the back of Shari's head as it zipped past and shattered the screen of her terminal. Others were quickly ducked by Tia and Subaru as they sailed to their destinations in the far wall. Crash went down in a heap, upsetting the whole platform and knocking it over on himself as the remaining contents on it smashed down next to his head.

After a second, Tia sprang into action to check and make sure Shari wasn't hurt by the shattered screen elements. In the mean time, Subaru winced in sympathy to the lump under the metal before moving in to assist.

"Are you okay?"

Crash only responded by scrambling backwards away from her, kicking clear of several broken parts and knocking down another piece of equipment with a loud shattering sound as glass broke and sparks flew. In the opening that created, he quickly spun himself around and clawed his way clear of the mess, lunging for the door control. After several unsuccessful attempts at mashing the buttons, it finally slid open, allowing him to scramble out of sight before it slid shut again.

Tia looked at Subaru with a slight gape.

"What the hell did you do to him?" She asked.

"I didn't do anything!" Subaru defended. "He looked like someone was out to kill him or something."

"You're a klutz, but not THAT bad!" Tia objected. "I better catch up to him and make sure he's okay. Stay and help Shari real quick."

Subaru nodded as Tia went for the door. Unfortunately, when she hit the button… nothing happened. Irritated, Tia hit the button again.

"Oh come on, for the love of-"

This time, the door panel burst into a cloud of sparks. The hum of the machines that were still active died, along with the lights, drowning the room in pitch darkness.

"Oh you've GOT to be kidding me," Tia groaned. In the darkness, Shari voiced her own thoughts.

"This should be impossible."

"Why's that?" Subaru asked.

"The terminals, lights, and door are on three completely separate breakers," Shari stated, matter-of-factly.

* * *

Roland was nearly flattened as Crash rounded the corner of a hallway intersection at a speed most students in schools would be punished for. The test pilot was so preoccupied though that he didn't even really acknowledge the presence of the senior officer as he bowled past him with little more than an impulsive 'sorry' to the obstruction of his escape path.

The General however, was not so absent on his mind not to notice that this was a serious breach of military discipline, but that it was his own usually respectful and observant subordinate.

"Wait, what the-" Roland spun around, grabbing hold of Crash's nearest arm. "What's wrong?"

Crash didn't register the question or the voice it belonged to, choosing only to whip around instinctively to push whoever was slowing him down away with a vicious 'Lemme go!'

His shove however, was met with a sudden feeling of vertigo as the arm that was latched onto him whipped his elbow into a joint lock and his spin redirected into a short flight before he landed face down on the tile floor. A moment later, a knee pressed firmly into his spine as the locked arm was tightly restrained beyond any hope of using it effectively.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" The General spat. "It's not like you to lose your head this way at all and-"

He paused, noticing Crash was nearly hyperventilating and his face was white as a sheet and covered in sweat. And more…

"Jesus, you're shaking like a mouse. What the hell?" He shifted his body weight off the now docile pilot. "Come on Ford, relax, you're okay." It was rare for anyone to refer to Crash by his real name.

"Sir?" Crash's voice was confused. "Where'd you come from so fast?"

"That should be the other way around Ford," Roland hauled himself to his feet. "I haven't seen you this fucked up since…" he trailed off. After a second he looked down the hall the pilot had come bolting down, then sighed, closing his eyes.

"Dammit… God FUCKING dammit."

Roland placed one of his hands on his forehead, as if to ward off an impending migraine. He should have seen it coming; he should have EXPECTED it. But he was too busy worrying about the mistake he made that almost got someone killed to think about it at the time. Of course THAT would have happened. He read the files on everyone here.

"Come on Crash," he reverted to normal addressing again. "Get up."

With a short Heave, he pulled Crash, still shaking, still white, to his feet.

"Let's get something to eat."

Crash nodded, wobbling slightly as Roland turned towards his original destination. After an unsteady step, the General wrapped an arm up across his shoulder to help.

"Sometimes I think you were born into this universe expressly to test the limits of my sanity," he sighed. "Just when I think you've done your worst, somehow you find a way to raise the bar that even Regius can't help but laugh from his grave."

* * *

"What if everything you ever wanted…"

"Came, in, a ROCKET CAN?!"

The wonders of modern advertising were not merely the express property of Earth Based Capitalism. In the magic based society of MidChilda, it was just as prominent, if not more so for the ways magic could be used (within legal bounds) to do one of many things normal advertising couldn't match. One was to get empathic polls more accurately on products. Another was to use magic to enhance or create products that would otherwise be impossible, insane, or completely cost ineffective.

The third was television.

Yeah, even in another dimension, it seems you can't escape mass media. And with advanced magitech producing the likes of Holoscreens that could go wherever you wanted, there was almost no way to escape the bombardment of products as diverse as finger prints. To regular adults, the psychologically evaluated and socially engineered product advertisements were hard enough to resist a good half the time. The heartless leaches of marketing would stoop to every legal measure in order to convince the population at large that their product was worth forking over their hard-earned paychecks.

The young child staring at the holoscreen never even stood a snowflake's chance in hell. Even if her vocabulary and mind were more advanced than other children her age. Her mind was nowhere near cynical enough to filter out the razzle dazzle of the commercial before her as it continued to advertise the drink's ability to take a D rank mage and pump them full of S rank energy to keep them supercharged for hours.

Her eyes grew huge as she 'oooo-ed' at the images flashing past her, pausing from folding some laundry to imagine running around the city, powered up by the drink and helping people fix their problems.

"Zaffy lookit!" she announced, pointing at the screen. Silently sitting next to her on the couch, the blue wolf twitched one ear ever so slightly and glanced at the obnoxious advertisement. That made this, what? Number, nineteen today? Well, nineteenth time this company's advertised their product. So far it was three commercials airing roughly five times each over the course of nine hours. Just over a minute apiece. At least once each commercial break as far as he could count. Given that this was the fifth time for commercial two, and commercial three already aired five times. He expected the next break in about fifteen minutes would feature the first commercial.

Not that airing the commercial a few dozen times was going to make Zaphira change his stance on the drink. He'd tried some of that… Power… Thirst once. From that day on it had been his unspoken duty to keep everyone he knew well away from the stuff. God only knows what would happen if Rein got herself doped up on a can of that liquid. Or perhaps what kind of terror Vivio here would become on a caffeine high. A little tornado of green and red and gold… A terrifying prospect that made the guardian beast shudder.

Vivio immediately looked at him.

"Zaffy cold?"

That usually meant…

-glomp-

"I warm you up."

Zaphira suppressed an annoyed growl. The girl was gentle, but he was a guardian beast. It didn't bode well for a guardian beast if he ended up melting like butter every time something cute crossed his path. It was, unmanly. You can't intimidate people before a fight if you can't pull off the manly affect of being a cold emotionless killing machine. And being the warm fuzzy snuggle wolf was most certainly NOT a cold emotionless killing machine… Zaphira paused in his thinking. He was busy justifying reasons, but not doing anything about the munchkin currently latched onto him.

Eh, what the hell.

On second thought, perhaps he could excuse it as him being MAN enough to not be afraid of cute… or Vivio didn't count as being unmanly… something.

Anything?

New plan…

Anyone who argued with him about it would get their ass bitten off. It was easier that way

The sound of the main door to the quarters interrupted his self-reflection. Bristling slightly and baring his fangs to scare off any would be intruders, he was not taking any chances after what happened a few months ago during Jail's onslaught.

"We're back!" Nanoha's voice chimed from just out of sight. Zaphira relaxed even as the little blond girl unlatched herself from him and vaulted past him for the door.

"Mama!"

"Vivio!" Nanoha laughed as the tyke barreled into her at top speed. Fate's head popped around the corner a moment later, a laugh of her own coming out as Vivio did her best to hug Nanoha's legs. Seeing the taller blond girl, Vivio immediately directed attention to her as well.

"Fate Mama!"

Trotting up in Vivio's wake, Zaphira greeted them both mildly.

"Welcome back," he began. "How'd that demonstration test go?"

"Incredibly well!" Nanoha smirked. "I haven't done a good test in a long time, it was fun. And their test pilot's got potential too."

"You might like him," Fate piped up as she started dismantling the ornamentation of her uniform and placing it to the side. "He's pretty well centered and serious, just like you."

Was that a barb or a compliment? Zaphira knew he had a bit of a reputation as The Serious One and unlike Signum, who seemed relaxed enough for it to blend in as indifference, all he ever did was look menacing. Probably one of the reasons he stayed out of his human form most of the time and took up living in his Wolf form. At least then the only thing anyone would really recognize was the whole barred teeth growling 'you are going to DIE' look. The rest of the time he just looked sleepy.

"You make it sound like I'm bound to meet him," he replied.

"You probably will," Nanoha advised the wolf. "We got scrambled around mid-day and had to take care of a situation."

"What kind of situation?" Zaphira's ears had shot straight up.

"Didn't you hear?" Nanoha asked.

"I've been in this room with nothing but Cartoons and Powerthirst commercials all day," Zaphira shuddered. If he heard 'PIKA!' ONE MORE TIME... er… "Consider me uninformed."

"Terrorist attack on a large power facility near the city of Selene," Fate advised as Nanoha took over dismantling various ornamentation of her own. "Some of the Test Facility personnel came with us, in fact, flew us in. Fast too."

"Did everything go okay?" Zaphira asked. He noted that even he couldn't help but hear the proffessional seriousness in his tone.

"More or less," Nanoha shrugged. "We went into an AMF field of all things, large scale too. Seemed quiet at first, but quickly got dicey. Had a few close shaves."

A few close shaves? She's hiding something. Nanoha was good at a lot of things, lying wasn't one of them.

"Define: Close Shave, if you will."

Nanoha paused, rolled her eyes back in her head and started counting off on her hand.

"Almost got blown up by a booby trap," she began. "The test pilot crashed headlong through two floors of concrete, Vita almost fell into a cooling tower, and Hayate got a little banged up dealing with the culprit before we could intercept."

Booby traps were never good, Zaphira knew that much. Something told him the whole test pilot going through concrete would be interesting, he definitely wanted to hear what Vita had to say about the cooling tower… but Hayate… Wait.

"Hayate's hurt?" he asked. Almost immediately he cursed the low panic that crept into his tone. "How?"

"Ambushed with focused AMF and attacked close quarters," Fate cut in. "We managed to reinforce her in time and she'll be just fine. Nothing a few days bed rest won't fix."

Zaphira read between the lines. Fate's use of the words 'managed' and 'in time' suggested things were a bit more serious than they were leading on. Of course, they both also knew how he AND the others felt, so it was no surprise they were trying to downplay the situation. Still, anything that could put a mage like Hayate down for 'a few days bed rest' was not a joke. And then there was the quick comment about Focused AMF. That didn't sound too thrilling. Time to check up on the Mistress.

"Well, if I'm no longer needed here, I'll take my leave," he nodded. Fate walked into another room to change outfits, leaving Nanoha to respond.

"Sure, we're heading straight to dinner with Vivio. If you want meet us there later and we'll introduce you to the test facility Officers."

"I'll keep that in mind," the Wolf replied. And with that, turned and trotted out the door.

"Bye Zaffy!" Vivio waved. Zaphira dared not to look back. The little girl no doubt had a smile that would melt him for certain, and he was certain, right now was NOT the time to melt.

* * *

The Cafeteria, as the less military minded people called a dining facility, was Vivio's favorite place to be. Well, actually. Her favorite place to be was any place where Nanoha-mama was. Though, if one stopped to think about it… If Nanoha-mama was in the cafeteria that would make it her absolute favorite place to be twice… Would that make it her double favorite place to be? And if Fate-mama was there too… Would that make it her favorite place times three? OH! And then there were Mama's friends, and the people who worked here, and… and…

The Cafeteria was the BEST, PLACE, EVER!

Or so Vivio thought as she took in the smells around her. There were so many foods to choose from… Meats, cheese, bread, pasta.

She liked pasta. It was yummy, not like the icky vegetables… But Nanoha-mama kept telling her that if she wanted to grow up big and strong like her, she needed to eat them. Vivio wanted to grow up big and strong like Nanoha-mama. She had seen it herself. Nanoha-mama was invincible. That made the child curious. Did Nanoha-mama eat nothing but vegetables when she was a little girl? That HAD to be it… but… vegetables were icky! How could Nanoha-mama handle eating them? Was she already super strong? Maybe the ickyness had some kind of invincibility power. YES! The more vegetables you ate, the more invincibility you got. The less the ickyness would bother you because you were more and more invincible!

Vivio beamed a radiant smile up at Nanoha-mama as she congratulated herself on finally figuring out her secret.

Nanoha scanned the food line, unaware of the impeccable logic racing through the mind of her adopted daughter as she took stock of this evening's selection. There was Pasta. Vivio loved pasta. Noting her daughter's huge smile, she guessed Vivio had already noticed. Already knowing the answer, Nanoha decided to confirm what the child wanted to eat.

"So Vivio, what do you want tonight?"

"Vegetals please!"

Predictable as always. Vivio wanted the thing she liked, pas- Wait.

"What again?" Nanoha asked.

"Vegetals please, Nanoha-mama!"

Nanoha blinked. Vivio ALWAYS wanted Pasta when it was a choice. Usually she had to get help talking her into actually eating what was put on her plate. But now Vivio was eyeing the peas with an almost predatory look. A look that came off as adorable despite implications. Maybe Vivio had a change of taste in the last few days. It was said that a growing child can be finicky, and their taste buds change rapidly.

"Which ones?" Nanoha asked, expecting an easy answer.

"All of them!"

… That didn't compute. Nanoha turned, looking at Fate, expecting to catch her smiling. If this were one of Hayate's ideas for a practical joke, it would be manipulated through Fate. It's the only way Vivio would even go with such a trick. However, Fate looked just as confused, returning Nanoha's gaze with a shrug.

Now convinced this was the real deal, Nanoha returned her gaze to the small child beaming up at her. From one extreme to the other, just like a child. However, Nanoha had to act the responsible parent here, and ensure a balanced nutritional diet.

"Okay," she began. "We'll get two Vegetables this time, but you still have to have some pasta for carbohydrates. You need the energy."

Vivio's face crinkled. This was perplexing. She was absolutely certain Nanoha-mama would be super-happy to see her wanting lots of vegetables, and would heap them on a plate if she asked. But now Nanoha-mama was telling her she needed to eat Pasta.

She needed Pasta too? What for? Mama said… what was that? 'Kobohidrates'? They produced energy right? Vivio quickly reassessed her logic. Vegetables made you invincible, but Kobohidreates produced energy. That didn't seem right though. Every time she ate lots of pasta, she got tired.

Maybe it was because of her metabolism. Perhaps her blood sugar in her young body was imbalanced and the sudden spike of sugars produced by eating Pasta resulted in her body producing a counter shot of insulin that made her drowsy.

Vivio frowned. That entire train of thought seemed to have come out of nowhere, but she didn't really get what it meant. Having bits and pieces of the memory of the Sainkt Kaiser could really be annoying some times. It was like having a puzzle in her head but missing half the pieces needed to even BEGIN seeing a picture.

"Two Vegetables, a pasta, and a portion of meat for the protein," she nodded with smile, then frowned again. What was protein?

Nanoha suppressed a smirk, guessing what might be going on in the child's head. Fragments of college level knowledge floating around in the head of a five-year-old. She'd never be able to identify with such a condition. Well… Maybe if Vita hit her hard enough on the head. But either way, Nanoha was certain that Vivio was often confused by her own thoughts.

"Okay, two vegetables, pasta, and some meat," Nanoha smiled. "Sound good?"

Vivio smiled. She'd grow strong for certain. Letting Nanoha-mama gather food for her, Vivio turned her gaze away from the food line and across the tables. People seemed happy as always. It was dinner after all. Everyone was enjoying themselves after a hard day's work.

Well, almost everyone… Vivio eyed someone she didn't recognize. He was sitting by himself at a smaller table near the corner, looking worn out, and a little pale. He seemed to lack the warm smile of every other person here. He must have had a bad day. There was only one thing to do.

Making sure she was well within' Nanoha-mama's sight, she shuffled quickly towards him.

* * *

Crash sipped some water. Really, it was just ice at this point, but the motion was soothing on his nerves after what he'd gone through. Thinking back, he felt ashamed. He knew Subaru meant no harm, but he couldn't help but remember the uncontrolled fear welling up in the pit of his stomach, or the complete loss of control he had when he had been startled. It had taken Roland literally throwing him on the ground to snap him out of it, and five glasses of ice water to stop the shaking. It just put a cap on what he decided to file away as a nice AWFUL day. Fate, and not the Female with the blond hair, had seemed to conspire on this particular day to deal blows to his ego, his body, and his mind non-stop since four in the morning. It was almost as if, after all the testing he'd been doing, someone had decided to run a test… on him.

Crash took another sip of the trickle of melting water in the glass, this time sucking up an ice cube and crunching thoughtfully. The General would be back shortly, having gone to get food for the both of them. Will was more than just his commander, the General was his friend. He didn't know how or when it had occurred over the last several years, but Will was a friend helping a friend as much as a Soldier commanding troops. He'd help people, help them be the best they could be, help prepare them for the difficult, the odd, or the unexpected.

It was right about then the unexpected decided to say hello.

"Why you so upset?"

Funny way to say hello… Crash tilted his chin down just enough to focus on the eyes… Green and Red eyes. Coming out of his own little world, Crash shifted into more direct focus, noting the little girl behind the eyes staring up at him with a curious look on her face.

"You okay Spike?"

Unprepared for the address from the child, Crash didn't quite catch the question, but immediately released his glass of ice, and reached up to pat his own head. Indeed, his hair was spiked. And for the first time in hours, Crash smiled. Despite the awful punishment he'd been through in the last eight hours, between explosions and having it matted down inside a helmet, his hair was still perfectly spiked as he'd set it that very morning.

Snorting a laugh at the randomness of it all, the actual question finally registered.

"I am now," he replied, his foul mood seeming to melt away in the path of curiosity. "And who are you?"

Vivio smiled as the older guy in front of her seemed to cheer up. That's all he needed was someone to talk to.

"Vivio," Nanoha-mama called, walking up behind her. "What are you- Oh. I see you've met Vivio."

"This is Spike!" the little girl announced. "He wasn't happy, so I made him feel better."

Nanoha looked at Crash, then laughed. "So your name is Spike is it?"

"Apparently it is now," Crash shrugged. "Who's the youngster? Not another Vita I hope."

"She's my daughter," Nanoha replied.

Crash looked down at the munchkin smiling back at him, then at Nanoha smiling a proud grin of her own. After careful examination of features, he came to a simple conclusion.

"She has your scary smile, and Testarossa's hair. I guess you've been busy, but I didn't think science had come this far…"

Nanoha furrowed her brow and cocked her head to the side.

"What do you mean?"

Crash had to fight to keep from falling out of his chair. Did he just hear that? No, she's smarter than that. She had to know what he meant. There's no way she couldn't have otherwise.

"You get points for trying, but you fail," Roland's hand clapped down on Crash's chair and gave a yank, pulling it out from under him. Crash fell on the floor with a thump as Roland continued.

"That would be Takamachi's adopted daughter. Am I right?"

Nanoha nodded moving to introduce properly.

"General Roland, Crash, this is Vivio. Vivio, this is Crash, a test pilot, and General Roland."

"Hi," Crash muttered as he crawled to his feet.

"How you doing squirt," Roland smiled.

Vivio stepped forward and performed a cute but immaculate bow, giving an equally cute formal greeting. Then looked up at Roland.

"Are you a Knight?"

Roland's head seemed to rock back slightly as Nanoha turned to the child.

"Now now Vivio, let's not confuse the General with silly questions."

"Actually," Roland's voice interrupted. "I think she's sharper than you think."

Nanoha looked up, and found herself looking at something long, and silver colored. It was flat, smooth on one edge, and serrated on another. Nanoha, still in motherly mode, took longer than normal to identify it as a large combat knife. But when she did, it was, at least from Crash's point of view, rather funny to watch her jump back, trying to stuff Vivio behind her.

"At ease," Roland chided. "I keep one of these on me at all times. It's a habit that's hard to break."

Nanoha relaxed, stepping forward again.

"Funny part is, nobody's ever noticed it before," Roland continued. "Not even Crash."

With a flick, the General twirled the knife on the back of his hand and then somehow made it spin completely around the outside before he caught it in a reverse grip, and effortlessly holstered it in the small knife sheathe attached to his pants leg.

Vivio's eyes grew wide as he did so and she quickly came out from behind her mother.

"Neat trick!"

"Wanna' see it again?" Roland asked. Vivio nodded emphatically. Shrugging to the other two spectators, Roland reached down and grabbed the knife strapped to his leg by the hilt, then pulled it up. Releasing it about mid way up, he let the knife rise into the air on its own momentum, twirling as it did so, then caught the flat of the blade between his fingers and began to spin it like a small pointy baton. Nanoha had seen something like this before back home, but it was manga fans spinning pens and pencils, not something that could take your fingers off as easily as this would if you messed up. The General didn't seem the least bit worried about it however as he swirled the weapon about in his grip with apparent ease. After a good ten seconds of flashing metal, he stopped, eliciting a clap from Vivio.

"I didn't know you could do that," Crash gasped in surprise. "Where'd you learn something like that?"

"There's a lot you don't know about me," Roland shook his head. "I was raised around knives and guns. My parents had me learning to handle knives when I was her age." He indicated Vivio with a nod. "I spent most of my childhood doing things like deer hunting and knife throwing, even fishing."

"Knife throwing?" Crash asked. "You mean like, hitting stuff with the knife throwing?"

"What else would I do throwing a knife?" Roland asked.

"Oh this I've got to see," Crash crossed his arms.

"What in HERE?" Roland asked in shock. "This isn't a toy son."

"My daily routine, consists of getting blown up half a dozen times," Crash deadpanned. "Spare me just this once Will."

Vivio watched the General as he rolled his eyes, looking around as if to ask someone to back him up as he began to berate Crash man to man on the subtleties of weapons safety and why throwing knives in a public cafeteria was absolute foolishness. But Vivio paid no attention to that. As the General made his point, he mindlessly flicked his knife around in his grip from the handle to holding it by the blade, then began to emphasize a few more points by nearly poking the test pilot in the nose with it. About the fifth time Roland shook his arm at Crash, his hand came up by his ear, and came down to point his finger accusingly before lowering his arm.

Vivio tracked the silver blur as it sailed through the air behind the General and embedded itself into the Two O Clock position of a clock hanging over the entrance to the Cafeteria. An Administrative assistant for the logistics department of RF6 froze in mid bite as he too watched the blade slam into the clock and quickly nodded to the guy that had his back turned to it.

"If it were me, we'd have something to worry about," Crash continued arguing. "But you don't have the walking chaos effect I'm stuck with."

"Fine," Roland shrugged, then turned and walked the half a dozen or so meters over to the door, then reached up and retrieved his knife.

Crash's mouth fell open as he noticed in the back of his mind how silent the cafeteria had gone.

"I'm easy going," Roland chided. "But like I said, this is NOT a toy. I looked long before I picked a target."

"When?!" Crash snapped.

"Somewhere around 'spare me' I believe it was," the General shrugged, walking back over. "My aim's a bit off. I was aiming for the center of the clock."

"So you're saying you threw it with your back turned?!" Crash responded.

"Yes, I threw it with my back turned," Roland mocked. "Trick throws are like that you know. If it's a forward throw, I won't miss."

"Uh uh!" Crash crossed his arms. "There's no way you can be as good as that. Admit it, you got lucky."

"I guarantee I am as good as I say," Roland narrowed his eyes.

"Bull!" Crash kept his sentence short in the pressence of children.

Both of Roland's eyebrows shot up. Crash instantly knew that look, and that he would soon regret opening his mouth. The General flipped the knife again so he was holding the blade and glanced around.

Crash instinctively ducked as Roland's throwing arm snapped around, the knife already beyond his ear when he realized the General was throwing at him, or rather, past him.

The small bladed weapon whistled eerily as it tumbled end over end through the air. Then, with a loud 'bang-snap-scrape', embedded itself in the door of a food heating box in the kitchen, which snapped shut and made the whole hotbox shift slightly in place.

There was a brief silence as those watching tried to figure out what the General had done.

"Satisfied?" Roland asked, the look on his face non-plussed despite the fact he should have been smug. "That throw, which I call the Flatliner, is what got the attention of the Recruiter that first got me enlisted, and won me the state championship three years in a row. You can say that very technique is the whole reason I'm here thanks to cause and effect."

"A power throw?" Crash asked incredulously.

"A power throw that can knock a grown man flat on his back," Roland corrected. "The first time I used it in combat earned me the nickname 'Steamroller' because the enemy on the receiving end was knocked flat, and his buddies decided giving up was better than seeing what else I was going to throw at them."

"So you ARE a Knight!" Vivio beamed suddenly. Roland looked down at the young girl then smiled.

"Yep! US Army First Cavalry, Second Brigade, First Battalion, Fifth Cavalry Regiment, the Black Knights." He reached down and ruffled her hair slightly with his hand as he eyed Fate approaching the table with his knife in her hand.

"Please be more careful sir," the taller blond frowned, handing the weapon over. "Hayate's budget is watched rather closely by those accounting hawks. We barely managed to get this place rebuilt after Jail's attack on HQ."

"I'll pay for any damage out of my own pocket," Roland nodded in response as he took and holstered his knife. Heaven only knows that even completely separate units could agree on one thing, the budget had to be the Budget from HELL. "Those Vultures at accounting are crazy enough to give me a General's salary for the circus act I get to run. I might as well find something to spend it on."

"I thought you spent it on all your toys," Nanoha cracked.

"Nonsense!" Roland smirked. "All test materials are either official budget, or 'donated' by the kind people of the fourteenth correctional facility."

"Isn't that the place they lock up the weapons smugglers?" Crash asked.

"They donate to us frequently," Roland continued. "All for a good cause."

Crash rolled his eyes. Better to try changing the subject before the General got even more silly.

"So what's for dinner?"

"Food," Roland snapped, turning serious.

"I know that much," Crash responded.

"Good Food," Roland continued.

"I'm sensing a pattern here," Crash shook his head.

"At least you're learning," Roland smirked, turning to a nearby table where he'd previously set a few trays. "I can't believe you guys had TACOS on Mid-Childa, and nobody ever TOLD me…"

Fate, who in turn, had grabbed the food Nanoha left behind when she followed Vivio over, also retrieved their own trays before quickly pulling a couple of extra chairs over to the table Crash had been occupying. Indeed, the mix of food was odd. Roland seeming to be excited over some unusual food selection she normally ignored, as it didn't look very healthy.

"I've been around here for several years now," he continued as he took a seat. "Yet somehow I missed it. So many things are ALMOST like home, that I've come to miss it, and here we are, with straight up, honest to goodness real Tacos."

While Roland went down Nostalgia Street with Nanoha and Fate about Earth Foods, Crash set about devouring his own… tacos? Up until now, he hadn't realized how hungry he'd been after the massive workout he'd had today. Vivio, in turn, went to work on her vegetables and pasta, the two of them quickly out pacing the other three at the table. Before long however, the two Aces quickly started to catch up gracefully, leaving Roland to pick at his own plate, then glance around as if embarrassed.

"Twice your size, and half your appetite," he muttered. "Thousands of girls back home would KILL for that kind of metabolism to be able to eat like this and keep that figure.

"Pea shooter… Shoot."

A second later Roland blinked as a single pea bounced off his forehead, eliciting a giggle from Vivio at Nanoha-mama's antics."

"What?" he asked. "It's a compliment."

"You have no idea how much of a workout using magic really is," Crash shook his head. "Ten minutes of combat is like two hours at the gym. I don't eat three triple course meals every day because I'm a pig or something. I'm not like Cooper."

"I don't think anyone's like Cooper," Nanoha shrugged. "He's an interesting person."

"The guy's an overgrown kid with big toys," Roland shook his head. "If I didn't have him helping me with designs and tests, he'd probably be in prison right now for a robot rampage, knowing his carelessness."

"You can't blame him for the way he is," Crash responded. "He's awesome at what he does, and I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for that."

"Right you are," Roland nodded. "Which just goes to show that the right environment can mean all the difference in development."

"Living proof," Nanoha chimed in with a smirk at Fate, causing her to blush slightly.

"Speaking of Cooper," Crash interrupted. "I heard he's been working on the forty-eight point balance equation matrix…"

Fate froze in mid bite, and quickly hid her reaction before anyone could notice.

"Been working on that for six months," Roland nodded. "I'm afraid he hasn't gotten anything reliable that can compress the computations yet. The Real Time Balancing is just too unstable."

"What do you mean forty-eight point?" Nanoha asked after a bite of her own food.

"The Advanced Circle," Crash shrugged, Fate bit into her fork to prevent another reaction.

"What's that?" Nanoha asked.

"You haven't heard about the Next Generation Advanced Mid-Childan Circle?" Roland asked. "I'm certain someone would have briefed you on it, you're also registered in the test programs."

"Well, in simple terms," Crash began. "It's an improved version of the standard magic amplification pattern currently used in the Mid-Childan Magic system."

"Instead of sixteen Focal Points like the current standard," Roland nodded. "It has forty-eight focal points which produces a raw amplification gain of three-hundred percent."

Nanoha's eyes got big, very big. Crash immediately felt the urge to be somewhere else, but suppressed it. Fate, visibly started to pale as she did her best to hold her composure.

"At the same time," Roland continued. "It retains fifty percent efficiency of the standard pattern, so the net gain between the two remains three-hundred percent."

"I could get four times the power for a single shot off the same amount of magic I use now?" Nanoha asked incredulously, losing her composure. "Why didn't anyone TELL me about this?!"

"Because you would have used it," Fate found her chance to interrupt. "As soon as you had the opportunity."

Nanoha cast Fate a shocked look.

"You knew?"

"We all know," Fate covered her nervousness with a sip of her drink. "However the pattern has been deemed unsafe for use, and we thought it better if you just didn't know about it."

"The cartridge system was considered unsafe, and it worked just fine for us Fate," Nanoha began.

"She's right though," Nanoha turned to see Crash giving her a serious face. "There's a major functionality problem with the Advanced Pattern."

Crash pulled Battery off his neck and placed the dogtags on the table.

"Display."

A holographic image blinked to life. Displaying a typical Mid Childan magic circle, composed of two overlapping squares offset forty-five degrees from one another.

"In order to increase the number of amplification focal points from sixteen to forty-eight," Crash began. "Research teams added eight lines to the pattern."

On the image, at the corner of each square, two lines appeared, going to the far side of the circle into the corners of the offset square.

"With just eight lines," Crash continued. "Thirty-two new focal points were created where each intersection occurred. Thanks to the symmetry of the circle, efficiency was completely maintained, resulting in a net power output increase of three-hundred percent."

Nanoha nodded. Focal points, balance management, and efficiency were basic Principles of Magic Circles. Each focal point had to be kept in balance. That's what the lines did, acted as flow conduits. It was the job of a device to manage the real time equation between each focal point and the rest… to… Nanoha's eyes bulged, her jaw dropping.

"Yeah," Crash nodded. All those connections ALL require calculations in real time. The standard Mid-Childan circle has eighty equation points. This beast has one thousand, one hundred and fifty two. That's one thousand, four hundred and forty percent more required processing power. The equivalent to a mage having four-TEEN intelligent devices on hand to process ONE magic circle."

"Given the level of amplification this circle produces," Roland continued the exposition. "It would be extremely dangerous to risk an imbalance of the pattern. At what is essentially four-hundred percent linker amp output for a mage, if the energy destabilizes, it would likely explode…"

"I can handle a magic ex-"

"INSIDE YOUR BODY!"

Nanoha froze, then shut her mouth.

"I certainly don't want pieces of my friends scattered across the countryside," Fate disguised herself again with another sip of her drink, hiding her nervousness behind her cup.

"Exactly," Roland continued. "We're talking about the kind of energies mages hurl out capable of dropping an office building. If those run out of control inside your own body… You won't survive, end of story. Since the pattern requires careful real time calculations, we've had Cooper trying to find a shortcut to the problem that could allow the standard devices to handle it without having to do a Bureau-wide processor upgrade. Especially an upgrade that improves ALL devices so that they calculate like there were fourteen of them."

"Until then," Crash stated. "That pattern should be treated like a bomb. Not messed with."

Nanoha nodded in understanding. Personal experience taught her the results of pushing her luck. That one time she paid for it with months of rehabilitation. Screwing up here wouldn't be so forgiving.

Vivio had her own take on the entire situation. Despite the big numbers Nanoha-mama, Spike, and the Black Knight were talking with, she somehow understood the problem. She didn't know how, but the problem in her mind gave her the mental image of trying to balance a stack of plates on the end of a stick. The more plates you had, the more difficult it was to stack the plates. It seemed that the best way to deal with it, would be to get more sticks…

Turning back to her plate, she decided to tell Nanoha-mama about it later. She had finished her vegetables, and was rewarding her success with a big mouthful of pasta and cheese.

Crash shoved his plate aside as he glanced at the others. Nanoha had finished first, followed by Fate. Vivio would be done here in a moment at the rate she was inhaling her food, and Roland?

"CRUNCH!"

The General wasn't very hungry, but he was enjoying his taco…

Vivio finished inhaling her food, then chugged down her drink that way only a little kid could pull off, then wiped her face with a crumpled napkin and announced her completion of the meal. Nanoha immediately gathered their plates, excusing herself while asking Fate to take Vivio back ahead of her and get her ready for bed. Fate nodded and stood up.

Just before they left, Vivio spun around and plastered on a big smile.

"G'night Black Knight! G'night Spike!"

"Night, Short Stuff," Roland waved, then grabbed his own plate and headed for the disposal conveyer.

"Takamachi."

Nanoha turned around to face the General as he deposited his dishes next to her stack.

"Yes sir?" she asked.

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

Nanoha paused, then shrugged.

"Normal routine, morning training with the Forwards, probably a mock combat scenario, then paperwork processing on the latest case as well as your test scenario paperwork on the MADCAP… why?"

"I have a problem," Roland admitted. "I have some serious morale issues among some of my staff. I was wondering if you would like to assist me in dealing with it."

Nanoha nodded in understanding.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked.

Roland looked around, then leaned in, muttering low.

"What would you say to some early morning BACKBONE surgery?"

Nanoha started to smile. A smile that looked more sinister than it did friendly. Roland may not have known it, but he was the first person EVER to see Takamachi Nanoha with a true Shit Eating Grin.


	8. Chapter 8: Her Momma Wears Army Boots

"She's going rather easy on them today," Vita remarked casually.

"I would have expected her to be going a little harder on them today myself," Signum nodded. "Usually that's how it goes after a day off."

Standing on a rooftop near the edge if the combat simulation area, the two knights watched passively as Nanoha ran the Forwards through a rather relaxed training routine. It was a test of reflexes. The Forwards were instructed to attack her non-stop. She would evade and guard as she saw fit. And whenever she felt like it, she's snap off an attack, forcing them to dodge it as fast as they could. Anyone who got hit by her attack was out. It was a game of elimination with no real goal but to keep going and 'survive' as long as you could. So far the Forwards had done a decent job. Considering the usual workouts Nanoha tended to give them, this was a walk in the park. In the thirty minutes they'd been doing this, she'd only managed to wipe out the group six times.

'Relaxed', when it involved Nanoha and training, tended to be a subjective term.

Of course, as Signum had long since noted. Nanoha usually pushed the Forwards right to the edge of their performance within the first ten minutes, and then kept the pressure there for an entire hour, simulating the intensity of combat so that they were often completely out of breath by the end of it.

This time however, it was easy to tell that Nanoha was just biding her time and warming them up.

Well, easy for Signum to tell anyway. To anyone else wandering by, it was just another high intensity training session by the Supreme Aggressor.

In the years since the Knight had met Nanoha, she'd come to recognize just how patiently persistent the younger girl was. She had treated Fate as a respectable rival in combat, even when they were enemies by circumstance. But Fate had always had a certain air of chivalry to her attitude even then.

But Nanoha was different.

Her first mock battle with Nanoha taught her one very important lesson…

Nanoha does NOT like to lose.

What started as a mock battle and rather polite test of skill, had very quickly erupted into a full scale magical brawl that was in so many words, more intense than the battles where they'd been enemies.

They'd gone head to head for an hour, with Nanoha absolutely refusing to show any signs of weakness. The ferocity of the fight had left them with rags where once they had been wearing barrier jackets, and the local training landscape looked like the surface of a moon.

Admittedly, she enjoyed the vicious carnage and an excuse to push herself to the limits of her ability, but at the same time, formed a newfound understanding behind Nanoha's seeming transparent personality.

The girl was unquestionably, ferociously, unstoppably single-minded. Once she set her mind to something. Nothing, not even the laws of physics, were going to stop her from achieving that goal.

Thus Signum learned to judge Nanoha's true moods through careful observation. Casual smiles and impassive looks masked her most of the time behind a poker face of cheerful happiness. A bright smile meant a rough day for anyone in proximity to her. A sad look meant there would be pity soon enough.

But if Nanoha ever frowned…

To put it bluntly, the moment Nanoha frowned, that was it, game over, mission failed. 'You Are Already Dead'. You just don't know it yet.

It was a look she'd seen only once in person, the look that had come out when Vita had inadvertently given Nanoha her infamous nickname all those years ago. A fight that admittedly, had it not been interrupted, they had pretty much already lost.

It was key to understand these subtleties when gauging what the 'White Devil' was up to in the simulated battlefield below them. Her expressions were soft, her stances relaxed, and she let dozens of mistakes slip through even though one could see her spot them by brief glances and flashes of steel in her eyes.

She was going unusually easy, almost as if the entire point was more to kill time than to train.

What was she waiting for?

"Oi," Vita interrupted. "Quit spacing out on me."

If Signum had been bothered by that statement, she didn't show it with anything more than her eyes flicking slightly to the left.

The two figures walking up the connecting causeway caught her attention as she did so. Turning to look, she made out what appeared to be two men, one average, one tall. The scrutiny she was giving attracted Vita's attention as well, who squinted and then smirked.

"Well look who's here," the smaller Knight stated. "I'm surprised the General got him up this early after all the commotion we dragged him through."

Signum nodded, then it dawned on her.

"Limber up," she ordered.

"What?" Vita turned an eye on Signum. "Why?"

"Just a feeling," Signum responded. "But I think this morning's routine is going to be… interesting."

Turning a look back to the approaching pair, Vita nodded in understanding.

"Want me to set the recording programs up?"

"Good idea." Signum turned as Vita brought up holographic consoles. "As much monitoring as we can for this."

Signum knew what Takamachi was planning now.

* * *

"Man," Roland gawked around as he stepped off the causeway onto the artificial island supporting the training area suite. "I keep forgetting about the really COOL stuff that gets done in the TSAB. This is absolutely Star Trek."

"I've only seen a training suite like this once before," Crash wandered over and ran his hand across a 'fallen concrete block'. Despite apprehension that something would explode, nothing happened. "It's incredibly stable, despite my… abilities. I think it's because I'm not actually touching any of the equipment involved. Still, this is seriously expensive equipment, especially given the scale."

"You're telling me," Roland responded. "I've seen the numbers. These simulation suites cost as much as building and staffing an entire standard base with full personnel. We'd be forced to pretty much run McGreggor on a skeleton crew for a year to afford this."

"At least we know why Yagami's got no more than maybe sixty people under her command," Crash nodded. "Most of her budget is going into operating this."

"And it paid for itself if I'm to believe the after action reports on the entire Cradle Incident," Roland turned and started walking down a 'sidewalk'. "Takamachi's been applying some heavy duty combat training to these Forwards of hers, and they pretty much ensured that the fight ground to a halt."

"Forwards?" Crash asked, catching up.

"You met two of them last night," Roland nodded. "One of them was the reason you ended up being used in a practice throw."

"That Subaru girl?" Crash asked. "She's a Forward Field Combatant?"

"One of the Good Guys, yes," Roland supplied. "I managed to get the whole story out of them once they managed to get the power restored to the device lab."

"Man Will, you're making me feel bad about it now," Crash sighed. "It's not like I was in full control there."

"I'm well aware of how 'in control' you were at the time," Roland nodded. "I'm the one who snapped you out of it remember?"

"I don't think I could remember anything clearly up until dinner," Crash shook his head. "Just kind of shut down…"

"Well, we'll get that taken care of soon enough," Roland answered, spotting activity a block or so away. "I can't have my best pilot turning into a vegetable every time he comes across a girl with titanium grafted to her bones now can I?"

"I'm not THAT bad," Crash interjected. "Am I?"

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Roland nodded, then looked forward and stopped. "What the hell are they doing?"

Crash followed Roland's gaze. Some twenty meters away, Erio and Caro were preparing for a combination move against Nanoha. Tiana was nowhere to be seen, though it was easy to figure out where she was from the orange bolts that zipped into view from time to time... and Subaru was aggressively trying to pounce on Nanoha. Crash shrugged.

"Typical practice combat?" he asked.

"No!" Roland snapped. "LOOK at them, what's wrong?"

"Uh…" Crash stared. "They're disregarding safety procedure AA-22 in relation to having medical personnel on standby during a combat trial?"

Roland opened his mouth and then paused, glancing.

"You're right about that," he began. "But NO! It's just… They are… and she's… And it's- UGH!"

Roland slumped, then reached out.

"Give me the radio commlink, and the Multiform Rifle…" he ordered.

"I don't think that's such a-" Crash began.

"NOW."

Crash complied, handing the General his weapon as he produced it from thin air. Roland took the weapon and micro-clip radio link and turned to face the group.

"Battery," he began. "Authenticate Roland, William. Major General of the Bureau Experimental Systems Test Force."

[AUTHENTICATED, AWAITING VOICE COMMAND]

"Enable Round Selection Mode Four, confirm."

[MODE FOUR ENABLED. S3I SHRIEK ROUND AVAILABLE]

Crash turned a confused look to the General.

"What's a Shriek Round?"

"You'll see," Roland raised the rifle, pointing it towards the group.

"Uh," Crash began as Roland sighted up Erio. "You're not going to… Are you?"

Nanoha noticed the General raise the rifle and glanced at him in the distance. Roland merely snapped a crisp order into the link as her eyes met his.

"Captain Takamachi, don't you move a muscle."

And he squeezed the trigger.

'CRACK-POW!'

Erio bucked forward, dropping Strada as a blue bolt caught him square in the back. Caro jumped as he crumpled at her feet.

"Eri-"

'CRACK-POW!'

As she turned to see what happened, exclaiming her concern, a second blue shot struck her in the side, knocking her flat.

Shocked at seeing her teammates dropping so suddenly, Subaru slid to a halt to see what happened.

'CRACK-POW!'

And was caught square in the chest by another blue bolt, thrown backwards right off the side of her Wing Road.

Tiana realized something was up and had stuck her head out of hiding to see the problem. Just as she made out the shapes of the General, and Crash, there was a flash, and she ducked back not a moment before a bolt slammed into the concrete where her head had been. After a few seconds, as the other forwards started to recover from their stuns, the senior commander's voice crackled onto their radio links.

"Cease-fire," he ordered. Then handed the Multiform Rifle back to Crash. "Three out of four," he muttered. "Still got that sharpshooter edge..."

Walking up to the stunned and recovering group, he eyed them all with a sudden seeming contempt.

"Congratulations," he stated. "You're all DEAD. Would anyone care to explain?"

Silence. They all glanced among each other as if trying to understand what exactly was going on.

"Anyone at all?" Roland asked, cocking his head to the side?

Tiana jogged up around that moment to join the group. But still no answers.

"Takamachi!" Roland snapped.

"Yessir!" she stiffened.

"Tactical Assessment," he ordered.

"A Four to one, attack and contain scenario," Nanoha supplied. "The Forwards were cohesive until they were flanked by surprise and taken out rapidly."

"Why?"

Nanoha seemed to pause. Making the ace of aces pause to think about her own duties was not something any of them had seen before. Roland sighed inwardly, then turned to Erio.

"Why'd you get shot?"

Erio stiffened under the scrutiny of a General, but in his credit, remained resolute.

"I wasn't expecting an attack from behind, so I wasn't really paying attention to what was behi-"

Roland turned to Caro and fired off the same question.

Not used to being spoken to so harshly, Caro sputtered her answer out.

"I- I was worried about Erio, so I wasn't really paying attention when he-"

Then he snapped to Subaru.

"I don't really pay attention to what's going on behind me," she shrugged.

Roland turned back to Nanoha.

"Notice anything Captain?"

They all turned to Nanoha as she nodded in total understanding, and the three 'dead' forwards all cast her and the General a curious look.

"So," he began. "Out of the four of you, who WAS actually paying attention?"

Tia smacked her face and sighed. Roland wandered over and patted her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, at least you're alive to write the condolences," he quipped. Tia glared daggers at the senior commander for a second as he continued. "I'm sorry to report that I lost my entire team because none of us were paying attention… Or something like that."

"Sir," Erio interrupted. "She can't really cover all of us like that, so don't blame her."

"She's in charge," Roland scowled. "EVERYTHING is her fault. And she knows it."

"Sir," Erio responded. "I have to be responsible for my own actions in combat and look after myself responsibly if I am to be an asset to my team."

"So then you made a full tactical assessment and understood the risks of standing in an intersection right?" Roland asked.

"We have powerful shielding magic to protect us in the open," Erio countered.

"Then how'd you get shot," Roland asked.

"I didn't use it…" Erio responded.

"Why not?" The general crossed his arms. It reminded crash disturbingly of Fox's 'Langley Effect'.

"We were just practicing-" Roland cut Erio off before he could finish.

"So you weren't paying attention to your flank," it was a statement.

"Yessir."

"So she was?" Roland pointed at Tia.

"No sir," Erio's sighed.

"So you had your shield up…" Roland asked.

"… No… sir." Erio hung his head in shame.

"Lanster," Roland turned to her in a more relaxed manner. "I expect you understand the lesson here."

"Yes sir," she nodded.

"Train as you would fight," the General announced. "Even Nanoha here fell victim to a simple but deadly assumption about a supposedly safe area. Even if it's practice, even if your only opponent is a fire ant on the sidewalk… Watch. Your. Flank. An assumption is a dangerous thing to make."

He turned and waved towards the corner of the intersection.

"If Mondial had simply positioned himself over there closer to the building, instead of standing in the open with his back to the street. I, a mere man with absolutely no magical power, would never have been able to so easily walk right up behind him kill the entire team. If I had been a real hostile looking to make a preemptive attack, I'd have done more damage to the TSAB in five seconds than Scagletti's entire offensive. Too many good mages have been killed by stupid tactical mistakes that should never happen. Mistakes just like that."

Roland turned back to Tia.

"So fix it," he ordered. "You'll find everything you need to know in E.S.O.F.M. six dash seven, Tactical Stealth and Minimal Magical Signature Operations."

Crash's mouth dropped, as did Nanoha's.

"Sir," she began. "That's the Enforcer Special Operations Field Manual."

"And?" Roland asked.

"The only one of us in this unit who's seen what's in that manual is Fate," Nanoha informed him. "It's high level clearance for enforcers and she won't even tell ME what's in them."

"Is that a problem?" Roland asked.

"I don't even have clearance for that!" she argued. "How can I get my forwards clearance for a manual I can't even get access to?"

Roland shrugged. "Then get clearance…"

Nanoha was at a loss for the first time in a while.

"HOW?!"

"Ask a General?" he provided.

Nanoha stared. Crash stared. Tia couldn't believe that exchange had just occurred.

"I WROTE FM Six Dash Seven my first year in the TSAB," Roland shook his head. "I know exactly what's in that manual. Why they keep that information wrapped up in high clearance is beyond me. It's the same stuff US Soldiers learn in Basic Combat Training, plus some of lessons I learned in Ranger School. Concealment, Cover, Camouflage, Tactical Movement Techniques, fire-team coordination, hand signal communication… All without using magic. Kid Stuff really."

He turned and addressed the group as a whole.

"All devices confirm authentication Roland, William. Major General of the Bureau Experimental Systems Test Force."

[AUTHENTICATED]

"Clearance Access special privilege level to Enforcer Special Operations Field Manual Six Dash Seven," he instructed. "Confirm Access Grant."

[CONFIRMED]

"There," the General shrugged. "Easy… for my next trick."

He looked around at them.

"Need anything else while we're at it?"

"Well," Tia looked at Cross Mirage in her hands. "We really could use a larger supply of cartridges so we have more for practice…"

"DONE," Roland snapped.

"If I could get more authority over my limiter so we could get more high level practice sessions in," Nanoha began.

"DONE," Roland snapped again. "Just remember to adhere to safety procedure AA-22 before you do so. It's there for reason."

Nanoha nodded as Subaru stepped forward.

"If we could get more ice cream for the cafeteria-"

"DENIED," Roland rolled his eyes. Tia made a quick rib in Subaru's side, who in turn giggled.

"Worth a shot," she whispered.

"What's with the ice cream?" Crash asked Tia.

"I think combat cyborgs run on sugar," Lanster rolled her eyes.

Crash willed himself to ignore the reminder about Subaru. Last night's performance was shameful enough without a repeat.

"It's not that bad is it?" he asked quietly.

"She cleaned out an Ami's Ice Cream," Tia replied with a scowl. "And my wallet… Ms. Muzino, the owner, has a limit on us thanks to that stunt. I just don't know where she puts it all."

Crash couldn't help but picture Subaru with a stack of ice cream bowls as tall as she was while she slurped down the contents of one more. Somehow, that goofy scene made the fact that she was a combat cyborg less intimidating and helped to ease the butterflies in his stomach as he reminded himself for the umpteenth time the girl wasn't going to suddenly leap out of her skin and attack him.

"Well, that takes care of that," Roland nodded in approval. "I guess now I have to go hunt down a few logistics managers and strangle the documentation out of them, otherwise this stuff will never get done. Thank you Bureaucracy."

He turned to Crash.

"You stay here, and follow the Captain's instructions. I'll be back for lunch I'm sure."

"Wait-" Crash began. "I outrank her."

"Takamachi," Roland turned back to Nanoha. "Be sure and take GOOD CARE of my soldier now. I'm placing him UNDER your command for the time being…"

Nanoha sprouted a strange smile as she snapped a Salute to Roland, who in turn came about and started to walk quickly back the way he'd come.

Crash looked between the two for a few seconds, then at the forwards, then back to Roland, working his mouth the whole time. Then it clicked.

"Wait! Don't leave me with them! Takamachi has that look in her eye! WILL? WILL!!!!"

But the General ignored his pleas as he walked away... after a few seconds, Crash dropped his hands as Roland turned a corner to head back to the causeway back to the mainland proper.

"Oh give it up, it's not so bad here!" Subaru popped up, clapping Crash on the back, causing him to stumble a step and nearly pitch over on his face. "You scared or something?"

Crash spun around so fast Subaru jumped.

"I'm not scared!" he snapped defensively as the butterflies returned in force. The only person he knew here just abandoned him to the Dogs, and they seemed to be hungry.

That response had to be a reflex, Nanoha imagined. She'd learned quickly how simple a person Crash was. The way he'd swung around so fast to snap at Subaru, even before his involuntary step away from her.

"I just don't like fighting. It's not my job, never has been," he continued in a false outrage that poorly masked his nervousness.

Subaru squinted in confusion then rolled back a little, crossing her arms. Then she started to grin, and then the smile cracked open as she fought to hold back laughter, but it failed. Crash's face colored as she gripped her sides and nearly fell over.

"OH... You're scared... YOU'RE SCARED!" she crowed. "I can't believe it! You're scared of a little training combat!"

"I'M NOT!" Crash tried to defend, but the laughing was contagious and swiftly starting to spread to everyone but Tiana.

"Oh but you are!" Subaru continued to laugh, trying to breathe. "I'm not...HAH... trying to make fun of your or anything...heheh... But it's still funny!"

"I said I'm not scared." Nanoha noted the ridicule was changing Crash's mood, just as it did the day before. The false outrage was becoming less false at a surprising rate.

"What do you guys think?"

"Scared," Erio chuckled.

"Definitely," Tiana rolled her eyes.

"It's okay to be scared," Caro smiled, but failed to contain her amusement. After all, if a ten-year old girl could handle combat, certainly he could.

Crash looked at Nanoha, almost begging with the look on his face, but even Nanoha could see that frightened puppy look in his eyes. Maybe it was time to break this up, so she opened her mouth.

[HE IS AFRAID]

Nanoha's eyes turned to Raising Heart in her grasp, her mouth still open to speak. Now it was in on it?

[ELEVATED HEARTRATE AND ADRENALINE LEVELS, PROBABLE FOR EITHER ANGER OR FEAR]

Crash looked down as all four forwards lost all composure with the device affirmation from Battery's assessment. This time Subaru really did lose balance and fell on her posterior. At this point even Nanoha was fighting back the urge to join in the overly contagious laughter. Crash's face was beat red, and he'd most certainly become the center spectacle. And like clockwork, his mood clicked.

"ALRIGHT!!!"

The laugher ground to a halt, Caro involuntarily ducked behind Erio.

"OKAY!" Crash snapped. "I'm scared! You happy? I'm terrified shitless of combat! I spend every day, twenty four hours a day worrying about what disaster I'm inadvertently going to set off next, what might possibly explode in my face, and otherwise what I'm to get blamed and yelled at for doing that I can't even figure out how it happened in the first place! I have enough to deal with every day as it is without having to worry about who's going to do their best to mount my head on a spear!"

He took a deep breath.

"I've spent nearly my entire TSAB career acting as a happy little guinea pig in an environment that while hazardous, has never been out to GET me. And suddenly, General STEAMROLLER Roland decides for some god-forsaken reason that I need to get some COMBAT in. COMBAT! For a dedicated test pilot! To build Character? I don't know! Ask him!"

Nanoha calmly listened to the rant, it seemed more directed at her anyway.

"In the last twenty-four hours alone I've had more 'action' then I've seen for half my career... I've been, let's see... In no particular order..."

He started counting off his fingers.

"Smoked, ridiculed, laughed at, embarrassed, yelled at for at least ten minutes straight, beat on, jumped on, thrown, threatened, sizzled, hammered, dropped into the ground from several thousand feet, smashed through reinforced concrete, shot at, blown up... TWICE! Crushed, thrown out of a plane! BURIED IN RUBBLE! TWICE!!! And personally insulted by the actions of others!" Crash by the end, was throwing his hands violently around in the air while pacing back and forth.

"Sounds like someone had a bad day," Tiana muttered audibly. Crash whirled on her just as fast as he'd whirled on Subaru.

"Oh it gets better," he snapped. "On top of all this I was the one who was trying to protect Yagami when that Robocop reject made its move. If it weren't for the timely arrival of Enforcer Bardou, the TSAB would be short one Lieutenant Colonel, and my head would probably be the express property of the Mini Red Queen Bunny of PAIN, and Count Iron, the Polo Mallet from HELL!"

Nanoha blinked. Did he mean Vita?

"So yes!" he nearly snarled. "I've had a somewhat bad day, and YES... the prospect of having to do it over again just eight hours later is not appealing in the least!"

He paused, breathing hard, having worked himself into an indiscriminate rage. After a few seconds, he continued in a lower tone.

"But you know what? I can play along, I can play your games..."

Crash turned around, he was calming down now, but he looked dead serious.

"Battery..."

[PRIMED]

"Engage..."

[ENGAGING]

Nanoha remembered to keep her focus this time as Crash instructed his device to perform its Set Up. She wanted some idea of the Armor's internal structure.

First came the core, which from the dog tags, become the lower receiver and hand-grip of the Multiform Rifle.

It quickly connected itself to the upper receiver, and then the stock component before the barrel slammed into place, finishing up with the cartridge magazine and the heavy bolt locking into the forward position.

The endoskeleton came next, starting at the hands and feet, which were instantly incased with heavy mechanical gauntlets similar to Subaru's. The blended seamlessly into a protective full body suit. A pair of bracing bars ran along the arms and legs to each joint, connecting to a heavy servo motor. The arms ran into the shoulders, which had reinforcing rods running down the back supporting the upper body structure with a double spine. It almost looked as if Crash had strapped into a chair as the torso reinforcement and strength enhancing servos locked into place.

Then came the exoskeleton features. It started at the legs, where the boots were reinforced by heavy armor shift plates, then the lower legs were encased in armor tubes that clamshelled shut over the shin and knee. The upper legs followed suit immediately.

The torso armor block was two pieces, one for the back, one for the front, connecting at the least vulnerable point, along the sides and over the shoulders near the neck

Then came the reinforcing protective armor for the arms, heavier on the outsides than the inside for movement. At the shoulders, the Gravity drives, cylindrical in shape, locked into place.

The heavy shoulder armor formed over them, blinking into place and adding that air of menace to the layout.

The helmet was last, forming itself over Crash's head and hissing into place as it sealed his self contained environment. Once in place, it was a near cosmetic manner for the chin guard plate to trace itself into existence around the front. The multiform Rifle floated down and locked itself into a spot on the back... and then the transformation field collapsed.

The forwards hadn't known what to expect, so the sudden appearance of a seven-foot tall hulk had the same effect as always, and they stepped back quickly.

"I'm going to take the initiative," Crash continued, since in reality the sequence had only taken a second. "I'm going on the offensive," he pulled the MFR from over his shoulder... "Right now," and held it out right at Nanoha with one hand, turning sidewise to brace his stance.

Nanoha's eyes widened and she jumped skyward with a flash move as the MFR barked, spitting a bolt in the space she just cleared.

"What in the-" Subaru gasped.

"Lance rifle mode," Crash growled.

[LANCE RIFLE CONFIGURATION]

The MFR Extended and transformed. Nanoha was surprised by Crash's sudden bold attitude. Had they pushed him too hard?

-SNASNASNAP!-

The Lance Rifle kicked out three cartridges rapidly as Crash swung up where Nanoha was floating.

[HYPERLANCE]

Tiana's mouth dropped.

"I think he blew a fuse!"

"More like the entire Fuse Box," Subaru gaped as Crash raised the Lance Rifle, still with only one arm. The four-foot rifle looked rather wicked in the hands of the herculean armor. Nanoha quickly went evasive.

-CRACK-BAM!!!!-

The shot missed, but the pulse was close enough to mean business, even as it blew a large hole in the wall behind her. With the shock about his mood swing wearing off, Nanoha quickly remembered that her training limiter was still on. Crash, on the other hand, was running at full power and armor augmentation. That placed him about the same power level as the forwards, maybe more. That gave her an idea, a wonderful idea.

"New Training Mission," she crackled into everyone's radio pieces. "VIP protection mission. The four of you must protect me from being hit by any enemy attacks for the next twenty minutes. I will not be able to counter attack myself so it's up to you to defend. Your opponent is Banshee One, Crash."

It was an AWFUL idea...

"Wait, four on one?!" Crash immediately rebounded from his angry mood and looked around at the still gathered forwards, who now raised and actively prepped their devices for battle.

"That's not fair!" he followed up, anger quickly returning again

Nanoha smiled as she shot out of sight. It was a wonderfully, AWFUL idea...

The explosion behind her came a moment later.

* * *

Roland jumped at the sound of the explosion and looked over his shoulder. Though around the corner, he could tell it was no small blast.

"Ouch," he shook his head. "He hesitated."

Coming to the end of the causeway back to the mainland, he noticed someone in a strange red hat examining the practice simulator structure in the distance. The strange clothing matched with his pale skin and orange sunglasses seemed out of place in the TSAB, but there was no mistaking the insignia of a First Lieutenant on his attire.

"Good Morning Lieutenant," Roland saluted. The LT barely acknowledged physically with his own salute, but smiled in an eerie fashion.

"Not yet," he breathed through his teeth. "But soon, very soon."

Perplexed, the General came to a halt and stared at the junior officer long and hard before asking. "What's your unit son?"

The officer smiled again as he turned his head to the General, the early morning sunlight reflecting off his sunglasses.

Just as he was about to say something, there was a sound behind Roland as if a very large animal was about to pounce on him.

Roland spun around, his hand going for his hip as he quickly scanned for the creature.

Nothing. Just concrete, grass, and ocean views.

Roland spun back to ask the officer if he heard anything.

Nothing again. The man was gone.

The General froze, looking around.

"Must be special forces," he muttered, shaking his head. He then turned and continued on.

* * *

"A little hot headed this morning isn't he?" Vita indicated the billowing smoke cloud that rose from ground zero. Overhead, Nanoha's pink contrail was already circling, attempting to entice more attacks.

"You're not really one to talk," Signum pointed out. "You've smashed three alarm clocks this week alone."

"Shut up." Vita quipped, then added after a few seconds, "It was only two."

Signum chose not to respond again and continued to watch the scene.

"It's rather quiet," she continued a moment later. "Did they get him on the first shot?"

"I doubt it," Vita responded, walking up to the retaining wall and squinting. "He's might be a bit thick, but he's not a fool, and definitely resilient. He took a large explosion, a grenade to the face, and had part of a building collapse on him and still came out swinging."

"I'm surprised you noticed that," Signum prodded.

"I was angry, not blind," Vita quipped. "We both know he's got potential and-"

CRACK! FWOOSH!

Cut short by the roar, they watched a white pillar contrail erupt from between the simulation buildings, rocketing skyward through Nanoha's contrail circle before arching towards the open sea, picking up speed.

"No way!" Vita snapped her eyes wide. "After I just praised his ass! He's not…"

"He's running away," Signum shrugged. "At that angle and velocity, he'll be over the horizon in under five minutes. I wouldn't even bother trying to chase him."

"BULLSHIT!" Vita snarled. "I could catch him with my Rocket! I'll run him down if I have to run myself to exhaustion… Dammit, where's- What's his damn comm frequency!?"

* * *

"Crash?" Nanoha's filtered voice questioned. "Crash? Crash come in… Crash! Banshee One, where are you going? We do not have clearance to leave practice area airspace! Do you read me? Banshee One, respond!"

"Dammit dammit DAMMIT, DAMMIT…" Crash muttered to himself as he ignored Nanoha's ever more persistant radio calls. "Four on one! Right from the start… Like I'm some sort of play thing… Didn't even give me time to get ready, NONE at all. And not even a teammate."

Nanoha's calls continued to get more critical as he approached mach three, but continued to ignore them as he mulled over what had just transpired. Nanoha announced the mission, and the forwards jumped him immediately. Battery had beaten him to throwing up a Cholbham armor before it had fired off enough howler flares to sound like a funny-car race. He'd somehow managed to weave through the resulting blind melee attacks until the Grav Drive systems had warmed up enough to take off. How, he could only guess, but he bought enough time to clear the area and even managed to blow right past Nanoha on Supercruise Acceleration. At this velocity, by the time they realized what he was doing, not even Nanoha's legendary ranged attacks would be able to effectively chase him down.

"HEY! CHICKEN!" Vita's voice suddenly drowned out Nanoha's. "Where the hell do you think you're going?!"

No! Don't listen Crash. Ignore it. They've already figured it out, don't rise to the bait.

"I asked you a question!" Vita snarled again. "I expect an answer, or by Kaiser I really will use you for Croquet practice!"

First bait, then threat… Ignore it.

"Are you running away?" she crackled again. "Is that what you really are?! A coward who hides behind his test pilot status because he's afraid of throwing a punch? A wimp who can't even take a few bruises to his body and ego and shrug them off as another day's work?! You're a TEST PILOT! You're supposed to be the bravest of all of us, staring at death, laughing at the unknown as you push the envolope! But you act like a phony! Too scared to have a little scuffle with a couple of kids doing nothing more than morning exercises because you got scratched in a fight once! You're living a lie! Balled up like a little kitten crying for it's mother! You disgust me! You're a total Fraud!"

That did it…

"AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!" Crash roared over the radio on all open channels, his momenum arrested almost instantly as he stood straight in the air. "WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK TO BELIEVE YOU CAN UNDERSTAND HOW I AM!? TO BE TREATED LIKE A LIVING NATURAL DISASTER BY ALMOST EVERYONE YOU KNOW, AVOIDED BY THOSE YOU DON'T… AND THE ONES WHO DO TAKE INTEREST IN YOU ONLY WANT TO THROW EVERYTHING THEY GOT AT YOU JUST TO SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE IT! WHAT DO YOU THINK IT FEELS LIKE TO SPEND EVERY DAY WONDERING IF YOU'RE EVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO JUST ONCE HAVE A NORMAL ONE?! "

"I KNOW ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE WHEN EVERYTHING I CARE ABOUT COULD BE TORN AWAY FROM ME IN A HEARTBEAT!" Vita screamed back. "I FOUGHT TOOTH AND NAIL FOR EVERYTHING I'VE GAINED AND TOOK ON ODDS SO FAR OUT OF MY FAVOR I SHOULD BE DEAD, AND PROBABLY HAVE BEEN DEAD A HUNDRED TIMES! I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO WONDER IF I WOULD GET A NORMAL DAY! I WORKED HARD TO GET THEM! DON'T EXPECT ANY FUCKING SYMPATHY HERE!"

"THEN WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME!?" Crash snarled. "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO!? I'M TIRED OF THE DAMN WHISPERS AND SHADY LOOKS! STOP LEADING ME WITH CARROTS AND JUST FUCKING TELL ME!"

"FIGHT! BACK!" Vita's response was loud, and curt.

"I'M NOT A FIGHTER!" Crash responded in kind.

"YOU! ARE THE BEST DAMNED ROOKIE COMBATANT I'VE SEEN IN TEN YEARS!" It was the truth as the opinion of everyone who watched the test battle. "YOU HAVE THE REFLEXES, THE ABILITY TO THINK ON YOUR FEET, AND AN INSTINCT TO MATCH! YOU FIGHT LIKE A CAGED ANIMAL WHEN PUSHED INTO A CORNER, AND IN THAT ARMOR, HAVE THE POWER YOU NEED TO BACK IT UP WITH SIGNIFICANT FORCE! IF YOU DIDN'T ACT LIKE SUCH A WUSS! YOU'D BE A LIVING WEAPON! GROW A PAIR AND MAN UP TO THE FACT THAT YOU CAN FIGHT!"

Crash looked down, staring at the heavy gauntlet of the Olympian Armor, and worked a fist with his hand, then opened it. Triple density titanium and tungsten carbide backed by barrier jacket magic. According to Cooper, it could take a three and a half mega-joule impact in a one square centimeter crossection before even taking into account actual active defenses. It could lift five metric tons, fly at two-thousand, three-hundred miles per hour, maneuver like an air combat mage despite weighing half a ton, and had enough extra goodies onboard to give him a decisive edge against just about anyone before he even began tapping into actual combat magic. With the assistance of Battery, he'd successfully fought a Supreme Aggressor combat instructor head to head and had survived six to one odds against combatants that wanted to kill him.

So what was he so afraid of?

"We all have to fight for the things we want most," Vita's voice crackled back again, calmer now. "Some of us would even kill for it if it came to that…"

Crash looked up at the ocean spanning before him, then turned to look over his shoulder. In the distance, he could barely make out the shoreline, but beyond that, rising clearly above the haze hugging the surface, the sharp angles of the TSAB Ground Force Headquarters towers in the middle of Cranagan. Looking forward again, he glanced once more at the metal gauntlet encasing his hand. Then sighed.

"I'm such an idiot," he muttered.

"We noticed," Vita's voice crackled. "But pretending not to be what you are doesn't help your case."

Crash narrowed his eyes.

"Did you really kill for your happiness?" he asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Vita's voice responded. "I'm not too proud of that particular time."

"I'll make you a deal then," Crash announced. "If I win, you tell me all about it. If I get my ass kicked, I'm all yours to train any way you see fit."

"Deal," Vita crackled. "But be warned, I'll make you wish you hadn't said that."

"Then I guess I had better win then, right?" Crash asked, turning in mid air.

"Let's see what you've got!" Vita came back defiantly.

CRACK-BOOM!

Crash was supersonic in under a second as he made a beeline towards the simulation area. It was time to start fighting back.

* * *

"He can FLY!?" Tiana snapped, watching the contrail retreating into the distance. "How?"

"Magic remember?" Subaru smiled. "Did you suddenly forget where you were?"

"No! No!" Tia shook her head as she wandered out into the street where Crash had been seconds ago. "I asked the General last night when he got us out of the lab. The guy's got a power rating of C! It takes A level power to fly! You know that!"

"You sure?" Subaru asked. "Maybe the General told you wrong. The guy was helping Hayate."

"I'm positive," Tia barked as she looked up, then quickly moved towards a building. "I remember what the General said as clearly as the look on his face when he went running scared out of the room. My memory's better than that. I even remember how he said he needed a half-ton power armor exoskeleton to lift things the way you do."

There was a pause as Tiana looked back at her friend. Subaru cocked her head to the side, shrugging.

"What about the suit?"

Tia turned to Caro who followed her into the shadow of the building.

"My device is gloves," Caro nodded to the orbs on the back of her hands. "His device was that entire armor suit."

"It was making a strange sound right before he took off," Erio nodded as he too ducked out of sight with them. "He's the test pilot guy right? Maybe he's testing something to assist low power mages."

Tia bit her lower lip. Right. Nanoha wasn't going to tell them anything about their opponent. They'd have to learn on their own. Think like a Center…

"He shot west right?"

"Rapidly," Caro supplied. "Freid can't match that kind of speed."

"I think he was running like last night," Subaru provided, looking around in the sky.

"I think so too," Erio nodded. "He was scared after all."

"You think we overdid it?" Subaru asked, causing Tia to pause.

"No, Nanoha would have let us know by now if the exercise was canceled." She indicated to the circling pink contrail above. "Spread out and take escort positions around the VIP, hurry!"

Subaru shrugged as she activated a Wing Road.

"Got it. But what if he's really running and Nanoha's not going to say anything just to keep us on our toes?"

Tia watched as Erio bounced and Jetted himself up to a nearby balcony, Caro in turn, moved off to the side of the same building to back him up.

"If he really did chicken out, this'll be the easiest exercise we've had in months…" she responded.

"Who are you calling chicken?"

"THUD!"

Crash landed right next to Tiana hard enough to crack the concrete around his feet. The Center quickly backpedaled in surprise.

"How did you-" she began in surprise before remembering to conceal her responses.

"Get back so fast?" he finished her question, then shrugged, barely noticeable with all his armor. "Uh… Mach three is fast? I dunno."

He then quickly reached out and grabbed Tia by the foot as she turned to scramble away from him. It was actually pretty simple once he was actually thinking about it. In the time it had taken him to fly back, he thought about how Tia had been rather bossy towards Subaru the night before. It was logical to pin her as the group leader and Center. And with that, came a basic plan of attack. Take her out of the fight, and the rest of the team would follow. At least, so he hoped. Crash knew he had only the fewest of Seconds before they'd all wheel around on him like before. So he had to fight dirty.

"Just advance warning," he snapped as he started to spin. "SORRY ABOUT THIS!"

Tiana's eyes grew wide as Crash spun around with her and threw her full force down the street.

[SONIC MOVE]

Only to be caught by Erio almost immediately.

"Thanks," Tia sighed.

"No problem," he responded.

Crash wasted no time in maintaining his momentum even as this occurred. Almost as soon as he let go of Tia, he quickly dove for a nearby parked car and lifted it up. Aiming at Subaru, he sent it tumbling.

Subaru saw it hurtling towards her with plenty of time to spare and bounded right over the vehicle with ease, smirking at the rather simple tactic.

"Hah!" she snapped. "You missed-OOF!"

The mailbox that had been sitting next to the car found its mark however.

Not skipping a beat, Crash whipped out the MFR and took a bead on Erio as he was setting Tia down.

"Percussion round!" he snapped.

[AFFIRMATIVE]

The MFR barked in response to a trigger squeeze, and the two forwards looked up just in time to spot the round. It landed amongst them with a loud crack, making their heads spin from sudden disorientation, causing them to stumble about trying to figure out up from down. A second round quickly followed in and knocked them flat.

"Well, that was easier than I thought," Crash muttered, lowering his rifle. He was rather surprised the percussion rounds had so easily dropped the forward combatants like that. In fact, he'd never expected to so easily drop any of them this fast. The only person left was the little support girl. "All those big attacks at the start were just for show?" He turned, walking towards Caro who glanced around the street looking for options.

"Now I feel like an idiot," he continued, putting the MFR away and walking up to her. "Here I was afraid of you guys when I took the entire group down on my own in no time flat. Now it's just you and me, and…" He looked at Freiderick, noticing the creature for the first time. Freiderick in turn cocked its head to the side. "…the pocket dragon."

Crash looked down at Caro and crossed his arms.

"Now it feels like I'm being a bully or something," he grumbled. "I'm three times your size and ten times your mass. Just save yourself the trouble and surrender or something so I can get this over with."

Caro frowned. So he wanted to intimidate? There were better ways to intimidate…

"Dragon Mount Summon…"

Crash blinked as the sensor reading in the corner of his HUD suddenly spiked. What was-

"VOLTAIRE!!!!!"

Volt-WHO?

The HUD alarm went off as a massive summoning pattern formed a dozen meters back behind the girl. Then something began to rise out of it. And rise… and rise.

Crash slowly tilted his head upwards as the thing coming out of the summoning pattern continued to tower ever higher in front of him.

"Whoa…" he gaped.

Finally… Clocking in at over twenty stories tall, Voltaire crossed its own arms and glared down at the puny little man who dared to pick on its preistess, letting out a rumbling growl that vibrated the ground around it.

* * *

"Overkill…" Vita gaped.

"True," Signum nodded. "She normally doesn't summon Voltaire for simple training."

* * *

"That's cheating," Crash looked at Caro.

"He's only a hundred times your size, and three hundred times your mass," she mocked with a smirk. "You could save yourself the trouble and surrender or something."

Crash would have looked disgusted at her response if he hadn't been wearing a helmet.

"You're a little Devil just like Fox you know that?"

Voltaire rumbled.

"You shouldn't call me names in front of Voltaire or he might get upset," Caro chided.

"Is that a bad thing?" Crashed sweated as he looked back up.

"Usually," Caro quipped, looking quite smug for a normally timid little girl.

"Running's good?" he asked.

"Probably," she provided.

[AGREED]

"Yeah," Crash nodded in response to battery. "BYE."

With a crack, Crash pushed against the ground and took off like a rocket for the second time. Caro followed him with her eyes with an amused smile before turning to Voltaire.

"Lets make sure he doesn't fly out of here," and then she added. "Just be careful not to blast him outright."

The Guardian Dragon rumbled an affirmative and nodded before unfurling its massive wings, charging huge orbs of magical power for an attack. Then with a roar, Voltaire fired a tremendous wave of destructive energy into the sky towards the test pilot.

[DANGER: HOSTILE LAUNCH DETECTED]

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Crash snapped as he glanced over his shoulder. With a twist he dove for the streets and landed on another 'parked car', smashing it. Overhead, the beam ripped across the sky, producing a minor concussion in the air from its passing. He looked up to spot one of Voltaire's shoulders through the gap between buildings. Away, but not far enough for comfort.

"Okay Red Queen," he spoke into his commlink. "I know you're still listening, so how do you propose I deal with a two hundred meter tall living artillery piece like that? I couldn't scratch it if I threw everything I had into one full power beam."

"You went through the Academy right?" Vita's voice asked.

"Yeah, but-"

"Then you already know the answer," she continued. "How do you take down a summon threat?"

There was a pause.

"Oh, NO WAY," He finally responded. "I'll never be able to get that close a second time. You can't be serious."

"It's your problem, not mine." Vita's voice crackled. "Either you knock out the summoner, or you can spend all morning dodging Voltaire."

"So to win this fight, I need to take out a summon," Crash muttered. "Great."

"Do you?" Vita asked. "That doesn't strike me as Nanoha's kind of combat scenario. Are you sure taking out the Forwards is your primary objective?"

Crash turned to look to the gap again, noting the pink contrail Nanoha left as she circled around.

Oh yeah…

Maybe if he'd actually paid attention to his objective the first time around instead of being preoccupied with the (un)fairness of it all, he could have won this already. Nanoha's brief instructions danced through his head. All he had to do was land a hit.

"You don't happen to know how I managed to stay in one piece this long do you?" he asked.

"Beats me," Vita crackled. "Idiots like you seem to have ALL the luck…"

Crash continued to stare in the direction he came. Voltaire wasn't moving much. So he was obviously just waiting for Crash to come back.

"I think I can still win this right here," he stated. "I hope you're ready to spill all your secrets."

"As if," Vita crackled back.

Pulling the MFR off his shoulder and flipping it to Lance Rifle mode, he sighted up Nanoha. Two thousand meters. Lowering it, he watched her continue to circle, noting the pattern she was flying. It was the same interval, speed, and timing. She was baiting him to attack. Just like the fight yesterday, deliberate opening. She wanted to draw him into them.

No. Not this time. The more Crash stopped to think, the more he understood. This was a mousetrap defense, and Nanoha was the cheese. If he attacks her, they attack him. 'SNAP!' If he attacks THEM, he can't engage her. 'SNAP!' again. The correct method was get the trap away from the cheese, not the other way around.

"Mark Nanoha as Primary objective and make her marker bright pink," he instructed, cutting his feed to Vita. "I want to know where she is at ALL times."

[AFFIRMATIVE]

Crash braced himself and lined the rifle up again.

"Prepare for long range shot," he ordered.

[HYPERLANCE EXTENSION]

Go for two. Either win on this shot, or set up the first stage of an attack… layering a plan on the plan would be what it took. Battery ejected three cartridges as the pre-shot sighting and fire control procedure cycled.

* * *

[POWER SPIKE DETECTED]

Tiana snapped a look at Cross Mirage as it barked the warning. They'd recovered in the minute or two since Caro had so blatantly sent Crash zipping away with Voltaire, but obviously this wasn't going to as easy as marching a two-hundred meter high dragon lord around.

"Where?" she snapped.

[SOUTHWEST, TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTY METERS]

He's attacking from that-

"Erio!" she barked. "Intercept!"

"Roger!" the younger mage snapped. "STRADA!"

[SONIC MOVE]

Erio ripped away up the street. But if he didn't make it to the target in time, the attack would still come. They had to protect Nanoha at all costs. Crash was a bit difficult to evaluate. On one hand, his strong point was overwhelming physical strength and heavily built armor. On the other, he seemed to have some extremely fast flight capabilities, and quick, effective weapons. What was he planning?! Nanoha was the real target in this exercise. He'd be after her. And Nanoha was up there deliberately baiting him from a spot he'd easily be able to see… Wait!

Tia looked up, then in the direction Erio had gone. What was that lesson the General had JUST drilled into them?

"Subaru!" she barked, breaking into a dash. "Up!"

"GOT IT!" the Cyborg responded as Tia dashed towards her. Subaru quickly planted her feet firmly, Mach Caliber locking the wheels of the roller-blade like boots on her feet to prevent slipping. With a quick heft, Tia stepped lightly into her lowered hands and was hurled skyward with a statement of 'Alley-Oop!'

Cyborg strength worked as Advertised. Subaru had done this to her before, but with unexpected results that were far in excess of what was needed that time. This time, she was counting on this kind of massive heave even as she was launched over thirty meters straight up.

* * *

"CRACK-BAM!"  
Erio almost tripped as the blue bolt ripped overhead on a collision course with Nanoha.

* * *

Nanoha spotted the flash in the distance and only barely registered the blue dot as it grew larger in her vision. Around that moment, Tiana collided with her, knocking them both out of the path of the shot as it passed between the Center's splayed legs, and slammed into a building a block further behind them, taking out a portion of the floor's windows.

Tia knew she couldn't fly, and having been thrown several stories into the air would to anyone else seem like a mistake at this point. But as she managed to get her arm around her instructor, she brought Cross Mirage to bear on a nearby building. Rather than let Nanoha break the illusion of the mock battle, she took it into her own hands to deal with the scenario.

Cross Mirage kicked slightly as she fired her grappling round. It found it's mark a few seconds later and adhered to the side of the building nearest to them. With a heft as the attatched cable yanked tight, she brought their tangled descent under control and turned it into a swift swing.

Reaching out with her feet, Tia placed her auto-guard barrier on full to brace the impact with the wall. With a resounding thud of boots on concrete, she made contact.

"Too close," she snapped. "Maybe you shouldn't be flying around in plain sight."

"It makes me more vulnerable to attack, and makes you work harder to protect me," Nanoha countered. "Consider it a challenge."

"Lovely," the Center mocked, lowering herself to the ground. "Try not to be TOO obvious, I don't think he needs it."

Nanoha looked up, squinting. "Neither do I… "

* * *

[WARNING: HOSTILE THREE APPROACHING FAST]

Crash lowered the Lance Rifle as his visor HUD bracketed a blur zooming down the street, bouncing off various bits of landscape and equipment as it lurched towards him.

He could barely make out the form of Erio as he bounced off a parked car, about to make a final approach. One on one he could handle. How'd the kid fight? That staff was rocket boosting him. What was it, a spear? Crash could swear the kid was using it like a spear.

Thinking fast, crash readied his rifle, trying to remember some of Fox's close combat lessons and Roland's ever aggressive bayonett style. His mind kicked into overdrive…

A spear was an aggressive thrusting weapon with superior reach to a sword or other smaller combat weapon. It wasn't adapted well for slicing action and broke enough to force people to switch to swords late in the battle… But it still harbored a wide and deadly range of motion… In ancient history it was actually the primary weapon of most battlefields before the invention of gunpowder and the evolution of mass weapons made primitive spears obsolete…

A magic bladed spear however had the advantage of being nearly unbreakable and the blade itself was composed of magical beam properties that could be expanded or extended at will.

But despite the advantage, there was still one weakness to a spear! It had a greater reach, but the effective attack sphere was wider out than that of sword based fighters. Once inside that radius, the spear user was less capable!

Crash tightened his grip as Erio bounced off a fire hydrant and leapt into the air. Everyone seemed fond of overhead slashes, and the boy was no different. Just like his fight with Fate, he already knew how to respond, and this time he wouldn't hesitate.

Erio dropped with a battle cry, slashing downwards with a yellow blade. Crash twirled sideways as it delivered, but rather than parry the blow, let it over swing into the ground. He took the instant to step inside the effective radius of Erio's swing. Crash barely caught the look of recognition in the boy's eyes as he realized he was over extended and facing a physically superior opponent inside his effective striking radius. This time, he didn't stop to think about it, Crash merely swung with the butt of his rifle.

Erio's autoguard seemed to be on the ball, blocking an otherwise skull splitting impact at the last moment. The boy took advantage of the momentum from the blow, utilizing reflexes trained fighting Signum, and rolled his entire body with the blow right over the shaft of Strada. Leveraging the device as he managed an awkward landing, Erio pulled the spear straight back as hard as he could. The extra-wide component that housed the booster rockets caught Crash's extended back leg and yanked it right out from under him.

Crash wasn't expecting his leg to be hooked, and spun out completely as Strada caught him. Landing face first on he ground, he could only visualize in his head the boy preparing to either stab him on the spot, or slice him in half. Either motion demanded the same action. Crash pushed hard almost the moment the armor settled and rolled sideways. Strada's blade rewarded his action by hitting the spot he'd been standing in.

Pushing himself to his feet, Crash sidestepped as Erio moved right along into a quick thrust. The pilot quickly moved his rifle to protect himself as he slapped Strada's second probing strike aside. Erio was actually REALLY fast. He stepped and took a full on swing, one Crash actually felt through the deflection as he slapped it away. Erio would wear him down then hammer him and still be going strong. The boy moved up the shaft of Strada and stepped in behind a more precise swing, which was deflected, then curled back out and rebounded a full spinning swing as Crash stepped out of the first swing's radius.

He couldn't hang here. The boy was right where he wanted to be. And this gun was not made to fight a spear here. And less capable wasn't as 'less' as he would have liked.

Roland's voice almost seemed to come slamming down through his thoughts.

Gun Trumps Spear! If you use a gun, like a GUN!

Crash eyed the light pole a few meters away as Erio continued. Spotting the boy's longer, wider striking pattern, he gripped his rifle with both hands and leapt towards it, and over the swing of the blade.

Erio terminated his swing by spinning inwards along the shaft to shorten its radius as he came about. Crash hit the ground with his shoulder blade and rolled onto his knee, bracing the rifle as he fixated on something blue. Strada came around, and went right through the light pole like a hot knife through butter.

Crash wasn't aiming to use it as protection though. The silver of the pole blended with his armor grays, and caused Erio to misjudge how far he had to swing. Having seen the gray only in the corner of his vision as he rounded, he'd come around too short, connecting, but missing Crash completely, who was in turn about a foot farther back.

Crash drew a bead.

[SHREIK ROUND SELECTED]

"CRACK-POW!"

Erio managed to curl just out of the way of the shot when he'd noticed the barrel leveled on him. Arresting his momentum by slamming the back end of the shaft into the ground, he pulled himself behind it and slapped up a shield.

"CRACK-POW!"

The second bolt connected and shook the barrier. Crash rose from his knee and started backing away, forcing Erio to hold position as several more rounds deflected.

[MADAM TO ATTACK MODE]

A cartridge ejected from Battery, jolting Crash with extra power as the rifle's attack power spiked up. The next 'SHRIEK' bolt that fired hammered Erio's shield, cracking it with the concentrated force from the combined attack boost and cartridge impulse. Following up, Crash fired again, forcing Erio to block directly with Strada as he let the shield fade.

Crash turned up the intensity of his attack, firing more frequently as he got accustomed to firing on the boy. Erio in turn, twirled Strada with exceptional speed and skill as he placed the staff directly between the barrel and himself with each shot.

The tables reversed, Crash was now in an optimal position. Just far enough to be outside Erio's quick-strike range, but close enough that Erio had no time to do anything other than block shots. Now the boy would be worn down while Crash worked him over.

He could see Erio's face turn into a hard pressed grimace as the boy worked franticly to keep himself from taking a hit while he glanced around between shots. Erio knew he had to either get in close again, or pull back and try something new.

On his next block, he made his move. Planting Strada's shaft he commanded the boosters to hit it for a sonic move, and shot up and clear just before the next round passed through the space he'd abandoned.

Crash tracked the boy upward as he flipped out of his climb and landed on the edge of a rooftop. A few more rounds went up to meet him, but he slapped them aside. Erio wasted no time, not wanting to give Crash time to think or pursue him. Strada puffed a cartridge as the blade flashed and extended. Leaping up, he slashed once, twice, and then slammed the base of Strada's shaft into the corner of the roof.

With a groan, the entire section came free and turned into a hail of concrete and rebar.

Crash yanked his rifle down as he saw the mass plummeting at him, and twirled into a sprint. The concrete avalanche slammed into the ground less than a meter behind him, kicking up a cloud of dust as it did so. Crash eyed the marker on his HUD tracking the Forwards. Nanoha was still covered, but Subaru was coming up fast. Erio was already in a leap trying to pin him while the dust cloud 'supposedly' blinded him.

Crash turned and took a bead on the marker, and fired.

Erio yipped slightly as the round caught him in the shoulder, and spun off his dive. Strada allowed him to correct himself so he could land safely out of Crash's line of fire. With a wince, he grabbed where the round had hit his barrier jacket. It didn't do any real damage, but it felt like a good strong punch.

"I'm not going to get him on my own," he commented through a telepathic link. "Back me up!"

"Already here!" Subaru responded. "Coming in hot!"

Crash spun to check Subaru's marker as the color blinked. She was gliding in fast on her wing road, fist back for a punch. The revolver knuckle was already spinning rapidly, indicating she was charged for an attack.

Crash remembered how Roland had sent her tumbling from a single shot, and snapped his rifle up as she closed to unavoidable distance.

"CRACK! CRA-CRACK!"

Crash fired a quick burst off… but to his chagrin, Subaru didn't go down. Instead, she had interposed a barrier between them to block the shots. In the last moment, he understood his mistake.

"REVOLVER PUNCH!"

The blow connected with the chest plate, and sent Crash flying backwards right through a wall, causing part of it to crumble, but the building held easily.

"Ow!" Subaru complained, shaking her hand out. "What's that armor made of? That actually hurt!"

Crash picked himself up, and got a running start. She'd used her momentum up on that punch, he had to hit back now while she was dawdling! Scooping up the light pole that Erio had cut down previously, the pilot took a wide swing.

Subaru took a defensive posture and swung her revolver arm out to meet the pole. The flimsy aluminum piping it was made of buckled easily, but served to leave her open as Crash dropped it and jumped at her. Subaru dove to the side as a metal boot smashed a hole in the street. Crash did his best to spin to face the cyborg as she righted herself and threw a punch.

Somewhere in his mind, something Fox had taught him caught up with the situation. It was almost instinctive when he caught the hooked swing with both arms and continued to spin with it, flipping Subaru around him and depositing the girl harshly face-first on the ground. For just a moment, her cyborg strength was useless with this leverage. Crash pulled her arm up and back and prepared to stomp lightly into her shoulder blade. Dislocate the shoulder and upper arm, and she'd be out of the fight, but the injury would be easily healed by the medica-

"WHAM!"

Erio blindsided Crash at just the right moment. The pilot went headfirst through the windshield of a parked truck before tumbling out and past it to land upside down against a wall.

"He was going to pull my arm out of its socket!" Subaru complained as she stood up, working the sensation out. Erio established a combat stance next to her as he responded.

"He's taking this session seriously. I know after what happened today I would too."

"Then I'll take it seriously too!" she grinned, smacking her fist into her palm.

Crash meanwhile, placed his hands on the ground and pushed himself up before regaining his feet. After a glance around for options, he rushed forward at the truck he'd hit and flipped over it. The reinforcing servos for his hands allowed him to dig his grip in like nothing else, causing his gloved fingers to pierce the roof of the truck with ease. As the he came down, his weight and momentum transferred nicely and the truck swung into the air behind him. With an almost deft move, he completed the motion by flinging the whole thing high through the air towards Erio and Subaru.

Subaru halted her palm slapping motion gaped a little as the vehicle arced at them.

"Whoa…"

Erio stepped forward, thinking less about the unusual, and more about the here and now. Strada swept up and over his head, slashing into the truck. With a grunt, the vehicle was sliced in two, and crashed to the ground on either side of them.

Unfortunately, in cleaving the truck in half, Erio left himself wide open and completely unwound for what came behind. Crash hammered the boy clean in the face with a power-fisted punch that would have smashed through a steel plate. The auto-guard managed to pick up the blow and Erio didn't even receive a bloody nose… But he still got slammed into the rubble pile from the rooftop he'd cut down.

Crash landed, and was forced to duck a wheel kick as Subaru took advantage of the moment.

Yanking his rifle off his back again, he tried to swat her with the butt-end. Subaru bounced away and ducked as the pilot jabbed and swung wildly trying to club her. She evaded several more attempted swings before capitalizing on an opening.

"Too slow!" she taunted, and socked him in the faceplate when he over-extended.

Crash stumbled back. She was right, all this physical power, but he was still the one making the moves, and his ability to keep up was starting to suffer from all the fast moves. Crash took another swing but realized before he even got half way there he'd telegraphed his move and took a half axe-handle to the back of the helmet.

They were trained for combat, and had stamina. He was in good shape himself, but most of the stuff he'd dealt with physically never lasted more than a minute. The armor provided raw strength, but did nothing to assist with taking massive swings near constantly.

Rolling clear of a punch into the concrete, he managed to bounce away from Subaru.

The alarm beeped and the marker for Tia chose that moment to flash on the display, Crash threw himself further back as an orange magic bolt passed in front of his head.

The center came swinging in, firing a second shot that caught Crash's chin-shield and sent him sprawling.

Crash huffed and punched the ground before pushing himself up on his knees.

Now it was three on one, and he was really starting to slow down. Airborne maneuvering was easier than all the moving and swinging.

That was fine… Attack power meant nothing if he was no longer able to keep up. Battery picked up on the issue and the MADAM immediately diverted power from attack over to mobility enhancement.

A moment later, a cartridge puffed and ejected. The spike in his heart rate was accompanied by a warm feeling as the fortification magic washed away the fatigue. At the same time, Battery took the protective initiative to cover his momentary opening by firing off a salvo of Howler Flares.

"Not those things aga-" Tia never finished before being drowned out by the combined roar.

Subaru was caught right in the middle as she'd turned to go for a finisher, and covered her ears reflexively. By virtue of being both the closest, and completely open. It was no surprise when Crash stepped out of the turbulence already wound back for a full-scale punch, and clocked her without mercy right in the stomach. The autoguard never perceived the oncoming attack through the noise, and only her barrier jacket prevented any real injury as she was catapulted right into, and through a windowpane.

Crash stumbled back as the Marker indicating Erio suddenly flashed, and not a moment too soon. The boy's blade came right down where he'd pulled his fist back. Thank Cooper for building the Heads Up Display in this helmet. Without the tracking markers, he'd never be able to keep up.

Speaking of indicators, Tiana's beeped ominously too, forcing the Pilot to throw a hand out, generating a Wedge Shield that flickered from the impact. Erio, however, was determined not to be ignored, and began to slash as he put himself back in his optimal striking position.

Squeezed between a twirling combat spear and a ranged user, Crash could feel the pincers tightening as he swung the wedge shield around quickly to block bolts, then whip to deflect a magic blade. Caught in the middle was very BAD. If Subaru jumped back in…

"Battery, plot an egress!" he huffed between blocks.

Battery complied without user knowledge by sending out a series of sub-sonic and ultra-sonic pulses, using sonic mapping to detail the local terrain and environments. Unlike airborne maneuvers, a surface level hop could result in coming out of a jump buried half way through a wall. The mapping slowed things down, but the Device was looking for a target vector that would give its master the best tactical advantage. And then it found it.

[VECTOR READY]

"HIYAAA!!!"

Subaru came hurtling out of the building at top speed, once again going for a revolver punch. And this time, Crash had not the time, nor the grace to try shooting, or a catch-n-fling. A corner of his mind noticed a change in the gaps between attacks. They were in fact, so used to fighting together that they were falling into a coordinated strike pattern. However, Crash had literally no time to dwell on the thought.

"Now!"

[MACH STRAFE]

A single cartridge discharged.

"THUM-WHOOMP!"

Crash vanished, suddenly, and instantly. The only telltale sign of the event was the usual distortion of light followed by the compression wave of air moving to fill an instant vacuum.

Subaru skidded right through the empty space, no longer trying to punch as Erio aborted his own swing.

"Movement magic too!" the cyborg barked in surprise.

"Jeeze! He's just full of tricks!" Tia sighed, looking towards Nanoha's distant flying form.

A thump in the distance got their attention.

"Short-range instant transport spell," she continued. "I could use something like that. Let's go!"

* * *

Vita grumbled as she picked herself off the ground.

"Watch where you're teleporting!" she snapped.

Crash was running more on autopilot at this point, and barely heard the miniature Knight barking criticisms at him. Making his way quickly to the rooftop retaining wall, he glanced around to get his bearings. The hop had caused Battery to lose an active track of the Forward's signatures. Only Nanoha was still plainly visible not too far from where the fight began. Voltaire was strangely nowhere to be seen, though Crash couldn't believe the enforcer of his own personal No-Fly-Zone would suddenly disappear. Caro would be somewhere on the ground near Nanoha, probably waiting to get a kick out of summoning the beast again.

Crash flinched a little as his HUD beeped and bracketed Subaru racing down a main street. Ducking back from the Retaining wall as not to silhouette his armor form against the sky, he watched as Battery performed a target scan in the infrared spectrum.

After a moment, Battery highlighted a number of infrared anomalies. More than there was combatants. Those signatures could be anything from sunlight reflecting off a shiny surface, to steam or dryer vents of a Laundromat. It all depended on exactly what this simulated cityscape was actually simulating.

"Try filtering all but moving targets," he provided. If they were actively searching, they'd be the only moving thermals around. Twelve signatures vanished, showing just a few moving about below. The only issue, was there were still ten of them.

"Full scan," he ordered. "Give me motion tracker and magical signature tracking overlapped with the thermal."

[AFFIRMATIVE]

Still, the ten signatures remained.

"Something's not right," he muttered. "Bracket all of them."

The device complied by placing brackets labeled with question mark Icons, allowing Crash to turn away towards Vita, who was still trying to say something to him.

"Are you even listening to what I'm saying?" she snapped.

"Sure, sure," he replied distantly, looking around at the roof they were on. "The maximum pressure sustainable by the secondary shaft of Graf Eisen before failure, is twelve thousand pounds per square inch multiplied by the Belken Reinforcement Factor. Over the cubed root of the Standard Power Number of the mage using it, times ten to the power of the number of cartridges being used to boost it… About ninety tons."

Vita stopped in mid tirade. "I never said- Wait, what?"

Crash walked a few feet past her as the small Knight tried to make sense of what he just spouted. He stopped and tapped a spot on the roof lightly with his armor boot.

"What are you-" Signum began to ask.

"WHAM!"

Crash stomped his foot, smashing a large hole in the rooftop down to the floor below. A moment later he dropped through.

"Twelve thousand," Signum noticed Vita muttering, punching the numbers into a calculator she'd pulled from who knows where. "To the Belken Reinforcement Factor, that's one-hundred fifty most of the time… To the cubed root of the mage's power level, I'm about a million, that's uh… ninety-nine? Times ten to the number of cartridges being used… That's close to a hundred and eighty-one thousand pounds…"

"About ninety tons," Signum nodded.

Vita chucked the calculator over the side of the building. "I refuse to believe he figured that out without even paying attention to what he was saying!"

Oblivious to the antics above, Crash quickly moved over to a window. Using the darkened room to hide his form, he observed the nearest signature, Subaru racing back up the street searching for him.

Something about it just felt wrong.

"Lance Rifle," he ordered. "Quietly."

Battery complied, converting the MFR into Lance Rifle mode. Swinging the barrel part of the way out the window, Crash took careful aim at his target.

A low power shot could be fired instantly, with no warning. At the right angle, a mage wouldn't even be able to defend against it in time. Still, it felt wrong. Even Crash recognized something was too easy about this… Easy enough to keep his finger off the trigger.

After the words of the General, and their experiences, there was no way they'd have Subaru just out cruising around in the open like that. Not unless they were baiting him, using her as a deco- oh… HELL.

Crash spun out of the window and ducked against a wall. Decoys! Four opponents, and ten target-match signatures. Six of them were decoys!

Checking the markers, sure enough the thermal signatures and motion detection blooms were almost identical. Passive magic monitoring turned up the same basic pattern as well.

Someone was an illusion specialist. Which one?

The boy was a combat expert. Subaru was too. The little girl was a summoner. That left only their Center, Tiana.

She was trying to draw him out with an 'easy target' so they could get back to triple-teaming him.

Crash was an inexperienced combatant, but NOT stupid.

There was a trick to picking out illusion casts. It was something Crash learned testing equipment. When going through loads of equipment, the most important factor was perfecting the duplication process so that the duplicates were always exactly the same each time in order to control the test. Thus, duplicates were always exactly alike in every way. The same applied for illusion magic making copies of yourself and your friends. Logically, a 'perfect' copy template would be created, and that would be used over and over again rather than vary the details from copy to copy, as that would require a greater expenditure of energy that grew exponentially with the update frequency.

The key to finding the real Tiana would be to find the imperfect 'duplicate'.

This would be easier said than done though. Crash knew this even as he eased himself back into the window. If those decoys were advanced enough, they doubled as search units for Tia. An active deep scan pulse would light him up to anyone in a twenty-mile radius. He needed to find an alternate method.

"Overhead map and overlay contacts," he muttered. The HUD changed to show an overhead mockup of the area from the previous mapping scan Battery had done. Markers indicating the positions of his ten potential targets flashed up on it.

He could rule out any of the markers that were out in the open, or locations that were an obvious bait attempt. That was three. Still, seven targets did little to narrow it down.

Crash went over things again. Were he doing the illusion spell, he'd probably sit somewhere safe. He'd be on the flank. Marker three was the farthest from the 'front line', over near where he'd left them. That seemed logical.

But no, at the same time, another part of his mind said that his ideas were always one step behind. He always got plastered in short order on every plan he'd made. What he would do would be rookie planning. Everything he'd tried yesterday, today… Even his deadly opponent at Selene… He was starting to realize a pattern in all this fighting.

A pattern... Something he could sink his teeth into. These tactics, these plans they were all patterns of overlapping tricks and counter-tricks. A plan was made, the opponent would plan a counter, then he'd have to counter that counter, and the opponent was usually sitting at step three waiting to deal with the counter's counter.

If he wanted to win this, he needed to be four moves ahead of the current game pieces. Eyes Narrowing, Crash reviewed the markers again. Tia was generating decoys, she would be planning a contingency in case they were figured out and be away from possible attack, but she would also be smart enough not to be in the obvious place.

The markers suddenly showed a very distinct layout. The obvious decoys, a 'safe' flanking position, a false middle-position, and a tempting rooftop advantage only a sniper would use.

Correction, only a rookie sniper would use, as a rooftop would be the first place someone would look for them.

The four remaining markers… three were his opponents, the fourth was the last decoy. Caro was most certainly still guarding Nanoha just off the map. The remaining markers were in an even spread around the false center position. It was a watch pattern, not a search pattern. The obvious decoys were on the right corner. That was where they intended to draw him, so they had to be in quick strike range to pounce, while the fastest of the group, Erio, would be towards the back to cover the lead to the false decoy, the 'sniper', or race forward to cover. The remaining decoy would be squaring away the last corner for symmetry. Tia would still logically, be behind Subaru to use her ranged advantage with Subaru's close combat… that put her on marker two.

Crash swung his rifle onto the target point, just past a dumpster, in an alley two blocks over past a low building. He could hit it from here.

"Let's get their attention," he chuckled. "Give me a deep scan of marker two."

* * *

[WE ARE SCANNED!]

Tia's head shot up at the alarmed voice of Cross Mirage, even as the device immediately pointed out the location Crash had sent the pulse from. Turning to face it in preparation to direct Subaru and Erio, she spotted the glint of sunlight off something in the window… and then a flash.

The low power lance bolt struck her right between the eyes, and the world went dark.

* * *

"-ia, TIA!"

Things slowly went back into focus after an indeterminable amount of time, showing Subaru's face looking down at her concerned as the buildings rushed by. The cyborg was carrying her as she shot past buildings.

"Oh good, you're okay," Subaru smiled. "I saw the shot… You looked right at him and then BOOM! Right in the face! You've only been out about twenty seconds…"

"He made up his mind pretty fast after he checked us with that deep scan pulse…" Tia gritted her teeth. "That was what, five seconds?"

"He didn't do a wide scan," Subaru corrected. "That was a directional pulse. Believe it or not, he was calling the shot."

"He saw through it!?" Tia gasped. "Multiple decoys at full spread! He saw through all of it!?"

"Yep," Subaru put it bluntly. "Don't ask me how, but he found you and declared it."

"Erio?" the Center asked.

"Went right after him…" Subaru responded.

"Good," Tia acknowledged, then frowned. "You can put me down now."

Subaru did her best to pout, but it only came off as corny.

"Heads up!" Erio's telepathic call resounded. "I lost him! He saw me coming a mile away and took off before I could get there."

"Do you know which way he want?" Tia responded back. "We could cut him off."

"Didn't see him," Erio responded. "But I have a pretty good idea where he might be going!"

"Where!?" Subaru asked, partially outloud.

'Click'

"Right here."

The muzzle of the MFR rested right up against the side of her head. Subaru cracked a half hearted smile as her eyes drifted left to the seven foot battle armor blending in so neatly against a back alley dumpster.

[THERMAL ROUND]

"Oh man this-"

"BOOM!"

The cyborg crashed into a car.

Tia Split Cross Mirage into two components and switched one to Dagger Form, placing a defensive barrier and the blade between herself and her opponent for good measure. Crash whipped his rifle around and they glared at each other across a small gap.

"How are you doing that?" she snapped.

"Doing what?" Crash responded.

"Finding ME," she grouched. "It took four people with advanced optical sensors over an hour to pick me out of my duplicates in an enclosed space. But you found me in less than two minutes. How the hell are you doing that?"

Crash eyed the marker showing Erio. He had time.

"You don't realize how big an EM signature you have?" he asked.

Tia turned her head to the side. "What?"

"This armor," Crash began. "Is equipped with a target tracking suite composed of a Dual Phase, Wide Field, multi-band passive EM detection array… A Two Band, spread spectrum Sonar Pulse-Mapper operating in the ultra-sonic and sub-sonic frequencies… And a scaled down version of the Bloodhound Seven magic sensor suite used in modern TSAB cruisers."

Tia's eyes widened. The Bloodhound Seven was the seventh upgrade to the Bloodhound system, which if she remembered correctly, was developed based on information of the Clairer Wind, Shamal's device.

"And the helmet displays an active Heads Up Display in which on a mere voice command, can mark anything I ask it to." he finished. "That plus a little logic, and it wasn't such a task to pick you out of your decoy swarm."

"So," Tia began, her jaw hanging just a bit slack. "You could see us the entire time."

"Yeah," Crash nodded.

"You can see Erio bearing down on you right now I take it?" She continued.

The boy's marker turned yellow.

"Pretty much," he nodded. "Kid's fast."

"What are you going to do about it then?" she asked.

Crash managed to shrug. "Shoot him?"

Erio's marker turned red and displayed a distance counter and ETA.

Erio roared in on his booster, intending to skewer the pilot right in the back. Just as he got to point blank range, Crash dropped to a knee, raising the muzzle of his rifle to point straight up while ducking his head to avoid a nasty migraine. Tia watched, almost flabbergasted as the young combatant shot right over the top.

Erio only realized he'd been duped as he saw the look on Tia's face in front of him.

"BOOM!"

The thermal round detonated right into his abdomen, and sent the now smoldering forward careening right into Tia. The Center immediately dropped her shield and made to catch the boy as he slammed into her at high velocity. They both tumbled a dozen meters before coming to a halt with Erio landing on top of her, somewhat dazed.

"I guess I return the favor," Tia sighed. Erio shook his head trying to clear the scalding sensation before noticing the smoking burn on his barrier jacket.

Crash blinked, surprised.

"I… I really didn't expect that to actually work."

"Neither did I," Subaru commented.

"OH SHI-" Crash swung around hard trying to punch her. Subaru managed to dance to the side and grab his arm, pulling and tripping him as she went.

"You know," she began, trying to hold an arm bar while straddling his back. "You seem to have a bad habit of getting tunnel vision in a fight. You get so wrapped up with someone, you forget anyone else"

"Maybe," Crash grunted. "But you're no expert yourself."

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Because you're not really thinking this all the way through," he replied. "You realize this suit can lift four tons?"

"Eh…"

And with that, Crash planted his free hand and pushed himself to his feet, Subaru still straddling his back.

"And as you can recall," he continued, slowly forcing back her arm bar. "I, can, FLY!"

And emphasizing the word 'fly', he crouched just enough to spring skyward, and Battery did the rest. In just a few seconds, they were breaking the sound barrier in a high velocity vertical climb. The device calmly reverberated their altitude as the sky above them started to darken.

[ONE THOUSAND FEET]

[THREE THOUSAND FEET]

[FIVE THOUSAND FEET]

[TEN THOUSAND FEET]

[FIFTEEN THOUSAND FEET]

Subaru wasn't prepared for this, and gripped Crash's arm tightly as he dragged her upwards.

As battery counted off thirty thousand feet, she realized the pilot was not slowing down, but speeding up. She did her best to adjust her barrier jacket to the rapidly dropping air pressure, but knew it wouldn't last long. Crash, in the mean time, was completely unperturbed by this, thanks to the armor's pressure suit.

[ONE-HUNDRED THOUSAND FEET, ATMOSPHERICS CRITICAL]

Crash coasted to a stop. Subaru could see the twinkling of stars above them.

"Top floor," he chimed. "Meteors, Dimensional Cruisers, Satellites, and a seventeen mile drop. This is where you get off."

"Wha-?" Subaru's eyes dilated. Looking down, the primordial instinct of the human mind to fear long falls overrode her common sense dictating that she could easily use Wing Road. Logic just didn't function well the first time you looked down from a hundred thousand-foot drop. The entire expanse of Cranagan was visible from this altitude. Even the high altitude clouds leading ahead of the storm front that had passed McGreggor the day before were below them.

"YOU'RE KIDDING!" She snapped, clawing her way to latch on to Crash more directly. Battery silently displayed how strong her grip pressure was.

"I said," Crash began, grabbing her arm. "GET, OFF!" And then he spun, breaking her free of her hold, and hurling her downwards.

As high up as they were, it almost seemed anti-climactic to watch nothing more than Subaru falling away, getting smaller, and smaller.

* * *

Subaru, on the other hand, found nothing anti-climactic about it. In fact, her mind had essentially shut down. The initial shock of being thrown from seventeen miles up had overridden her common sense. Even though she could survive the impact of the fall in her barrier jacket, even though she could STOP her fall with a wing road, it was all forgotten for the moment. Even the ascension to the Cradle hadn't been this high up, and it kept her fixated in a disbelieving state as she plummeted.

In the end, Subaru had burned off ninety thousand feet of the drop before her mind finally caught up with her. The wing Road had to be formed steep at first, thanks to her fall going supersonic. As a result, she lost another seven thousand feet just coming down to a steady grade.

Breathing hard, she finally came to a stop, and got her bearings. Standing on a glowing blue magical pathway three thousand feet off the ground… That she could relate to. And finally, the extremity of the stunt struck her.

"That, was, AWESOME!" she crowed. "I want to do that again!"

"Quit wasting time and get back down here!" Tiana's telepathic transmission barked. "You're an easy target up there!"

"Like it matters," Subaru responded. "You heard what he said. He can track our every move, and can see through your tricks."

"Not all of them," Tia fired back. "I'm not calling it quits yet, I've still got one more trick up my sleeve on him."

"Like what?" Subaru asked. "You saw that shield he threw up at the beginning. If he wanted, he could stop even a full scale crossfire."

"No," Tia corrected her friend. "He still runs when we team up on him. You saw it yourself. Obviously he can handle us one to one, but he can't take us all on or he would have. So if we draw him into a trap-"

"You tried the trap and got shot in the face Tia," Subaru pointed out. "He's just going to track us down and shoot you again."

"Not this time," the Center instructed. "Do you remember our B Rank qualifier that we botched?"

Subaru paused. The test they so spectacularly screwed up on the final sprint to the end after Tia sprained her ankle. The personal optic camouflage trick she'd used to hide them from the auto blasters.

"Can you cloak us all like that?" the Cyborg asked. "You'll have to put up decoys, and cloak us all at a distance. And you'll have to cover more than just our visible signatures. You know what the Bloodhound Seven can track."

"I can handle it," Tia stated. "Now get down here. We have to make this look believable."

"Got it!" Subaru grinned.

* * *

Crash watched the markers on a map display. True his target was Nanoha here. But even with the effective range on the Lance Rifle, he still couldn't fly and fire it at the same time.

The only way to win this was to take them on their own turf. He couldn't fly low, or that giant dragon would be back. This meant taking them out, or at least putting them down long enough to buy an opening. But still, hitting their Center was proving to be difficult. Out of the group, she'd somehow managed to keep him at arms reach. If only just.

They were converging, probably having a quick planning session. After a few seconds and a blink as they huddled together, almost being detected as one signature, they broke up and split off in different direction. Crash did his best to follow the pattern, as it was another trap. Now that he'd opened his big mouth, they knew he could track them. What were they up to now? There had to be some kind of hidden logic to this configuration. No doubt that center had met opponents who saw through her illusions before. Then he noticed it. It wasn't brilliant, nor special. It was just practical. A simple triangle, just out of the line of sight with each other. The idea was simply to draw him back into a fight where they could team up quickly. If he wanted to win, he had to beat them first, and they knew it. DAMMIT!

He'd have to hit one of them, and hit them hard. There was no choice in the matter. Caro was away from them on rear guard for their VIP… but that was a suicide option.

"What's the worst that could happen?" he muttered. "I lose?"

After a second, he decided on a target. If he wanted to stand a snowflakes chance in hell of winning, taking the Center out was STILL the only logical solution. And the one he knew they expected. Conventional methods of attack wouldn't work. He'd have to try something like yesterday morning. Something unconventional...

Looking down, he could see the practice simulation area far, far below him. Quite a considerable drop, and the idea hit.

"Thank you Yagami," Crash smiled. "Battery, get ready to disengage the Grav drive, and throw everything into our shielding."

[CONFIRMED]

"Now," he continued. "Plot a ballistic trajectory…"

* * *

Tia ran quickly through the street. If all went according to plan, they'd have him no matter what he did. All she had to do was keep him at arms-length long enough for the others to assist. Then they could pound on him some mor-

"BOOM!"

She never knew what hit her. Crash came through part of a building with the force of a meteor, blasting a cloud of dust into the air as he slammed into her, and the street, cratering the ground for ten feet in all directions. After a few seconds, the dust was blown away to reveal the extent of the impact.

"One down!" Crash smirked as he stood up. "Take that! I never thought that stunt at Selene would find a use."

Crash grinned down at the unconscious center. That would definitely give him more options with her out of the fight. The others seemed to be reliant on her instructions and coordination. Without that coordination, he'd be able to sew confusion amongst them and wear them out.

Then, to his total shock, Tiana sat right up and popped her neck.

"Nice try," she grinned.

"What?" Crash gaped. "Okay, I call shenanigans. There's no way you could still be conscious after taking a hit like THAT!"

"Of course not," she smirked. "It's just… you didn't hit me."

Crash felt his stomach tighten. Oh, shit. That meant…

"Made you look," and the false Tia vanished.

"Motion detectors full active!" Crash snapped.

* * *

"Hooked him," the real Tia quickly transmitted from her hiding place. "Get ready to jump him. I'll put up a minor barrier to keep him from… Who's that?"

* * *

"Excuse me?"

Crash nearly jumped out of his armor and spun around hard, expecting to be blindsided. His weapon was in place before anything else. Only when it didn't match what he'd been used to seeing in this fight did he manage not to shoot first and ask questions later.

After a second to evaluate who it was, he knew one thing. It wasn't one of the forwards.

In fact, he'd never seen this person in his life. She was tall, blond, athletic build, wearing a light purple and pink motif with a small town country look to it, complete with a sun hat. Was this another decoy?

"Yes?" Crash asked, at a loss for a more sophisticated response, raising the MFR again. Just in case.

"I think I'm a little lost," she began, seeming to ignore the rifle as if she didn't even consider it a threat. "Is this the Lost Property Division Riot Force Section Six Training Area?"

Crash quickly checked his motion detector. It had to be a decoy, what with this woman's… his eyes involuntarily drifted down to some rather generous-and got yanked back to his motion detector by force of will. Thinking about such things, especially in combat, only leads to trouble.

Crash kept his eyes squarely at face level.

"What?"

"I was supposed to report to Captain Takamachi… am I in the right place?"

And she put on a genuine man slaying smile. Crash didn't really know what to think. Decoy? Real thing? Nanoha was living proof appearances could be deceiving, but that smile… Goddamn that was a smile. Crash could have melted.

"Yes, this is RF6's combat training area," he confirmed, now fully baffled. "Though we're kind of in the middle of a mock battle so now would probably not really be the… best… time."

It didn't look like she was listening. She was looking around at the simulated environment, the false buildings coming apart around them in their simulated decrepit states.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking back to him. There was that smile again. "This looks like one of the Abandoned Districts." She put her arms behind her back and leaned to the side at her waist, peaking past crash and looking down the street in a pose that seemed almost designed to draw attention to-. Crash decided to use this moment to examine his Motion Tracker again. Aside from her, there was no movement. Crash was starting to get this feeling he'd been in one spot far too long.

"Yes," he continued. "Like I said, we're kind of in the middle of a mock battle…"

The woman stood up straight, then peered past him on the opposite side this time.

"What ARE you looking at?" Crash asked, turning to look at what he thought she was examining, a wrecked car a few meters away. She stood up straight again and cut loose with another man slaying smile. If this was a decoy, it was good. Crash couldn't decide if he was going to attack or not, because if it WASN'T a decoy, it would make for a rather poor first impression.

* * *

"Thanatos One to Stars One."

Nanoha coasted to a halt near one of the taller buildings.

"Stars One, Thanatos One," she responded. "Good Morning Captain Bardou."

"Salutations," Lynn responded. Salutations? "I was wondering if it would be permissible to join in your mock battle as reinforcements to the aggressor side of your scenario."

Nanoha paused, then sounded an affirmative before continuing.

"Of course! Real combat is always dynamic, and it helps to be well equipped mentally and physically for an ever changing-"

"Very well then," Lynn interrupted, and then clicked off the line.

Nanoha rolled her eyes. That woman seemed so cold, but she couldn't be…

'Whoop'

…One to judge a person…

'Whoop'

'Whoop'

'Whoop'

…Waitasecond!

Nanoha spun around to focus on the sound. Something- her eyes drew up… Pole, spinning, Axe. WALDRON!?

[MJOLNIR IMPACT]

Lynn suddenly blurred into view, zipping up from somewhere down below her, grabbing her device with both hands even as it barked out the attack. She didn't have to wind back for her swing, she was already there. Nanoha shot sideways as fast as she could as the Axe came overhead.

-BOOM!!!-

The blow barely missed, but the bow on her barrier jacket got nicked, even as the force of the strike split the building behind her down the middle. Lynn curved into a spin and brought Waldron around horizontally, her hand flashing as she came around. Nanoha, already in motion, shot straight up, this time the attack barely missing her feet. The blast ripped into the building, this time slicing through the glass and steel in a seeming decapitation, and it started to crumble. Was that a full power attack?!

* * *

Crash jumped and spun around at the sound of the distant roar of a collapsing building.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" he barked, seeing one of the taller buildings in the simulation area turning into a column of falling debris.

* * *

Tia heard the sound, but couldn't see anything from her spot.

"New aggressors have reinforced Crash," Nanoha's voice barked on the radio. "Continue the scenario and intercept!"

Tia snapped back to Crash, who was staring at the collapsing building. Easy target. Better try and take him down now. With a quick telepathic attack signal, she leveled Cross Mirage.

Crash didn't know what hit him, something smacked his armor roughly in the jaw, knocking him sideways. He managed to catch a flurry of motion as the decoy/woman stepped past him and pulled something off her hip. There was a loud crack before he even hit the ground.

Tia yelped as Cross Mirage suddenly jumped out of her hand. What in the-

Crash rolled himself to as the woman spun into a turn, another crack emanating from something in her hands, then another and another. The motion tracker lit up and bracketed two targets as several muffled yelps sounded out from the positions above him. Realizing the situation, he scrambled to his feet as Subaru and Erio, their cover blown, burst forth from their spots, blazing in full attack.

-CraCrack!-

Two more shots rang out almost as one, and they face planted right into the road. With looks of total shock, they both dragged themselves to their feet as the woman came to rest with what appeared to be a gun-like device in her hand. This was no decoy.

"You have received reinforcements in this scenario," Lynn's voice crackled over Crash's radio link.

Tia's jaw nearly dropped when she picked Cross Mirage up and realized what happened. She was almost a hundred meters away! Crash himself, suddenly realized what all that looking around had been. Turning to the woman, he was again surprised to notice the man slaying smile was replaced with a 'serious business' frown just like the ones used by Signum, or Lynn.

"My name is Abbigail Granger. Call sign Thanatos Three," she announced to the forwards on the ground. "I will be participating as your opponent."

* * *

"What?!" Signum snapped and raced to the retaining wall. Very rarely was Vita treated to Signum showing any display of emotion, so her shock equally shocked her.

"Where'd those two come from?" She asked. "None of the site safety monitors reported any kind of unauthorized entry!"

"Then you should get them replaced."

Signum whirled on the male voice, Levantine already bared and gleaming as it cut a swath through the air.

"CLANG!"

"WHOA!" The voice responded. "I heard you were touchy like commander Bardou, but damn, take it easy baby!"

Signum got her first clear look at the man behind the voice. Behind a Katana styled device that kept Levantine from taking his head off, he was easily a large man in the sense of Big and Strong. His hair was black and barely tamed. His barrier jacket consisted mainly of armor plates protecting his upper body and joints.

"Identify youself," she ordered.

"Lieutenant Gray Edwards," the man responded. "Callsign Ninja Master. Why so uptight? This is just a practice battle right?"

Signum frowned as he finished his response, seeming to look her up and down. Something just rubbed her the wrong way about this guy, as if his very existence was somehow offensive. Deep down, Signum had this urge to kill him. She couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was the way his eyes seemed to undress her right there.

"So," Gray continued. "Are you going to beat the crap out of me or chill out? Make up your mind soon I'm getting tired of blocking. Though if you decide on the former…" He leaned into his block. "Be gentle." And winked.

Signum turned pink and stepped back stunned. After a few seconds, her brain rebooted and she masked any further emotions behind a death glare.

"Levantine…"

[EXPLOSION!]

Gray's eyes bugged out as the sword puffed a cartridge.

"Oi, Signum." Vita looked at the taller Knight with Concern. "What are you getting so worked up over?" Normally this scenario was the other way around. Vita would be the one losing her temper for no reason, and Signum would be the one to hold her back. But now Signum was setting up a ready stance that radiated an intent to kill. Or at least mangle.

"Yeah," Gray continued her statement. "Like the brat said. What are you so worked up over? I'm just saying hi."

Vita growled at being called 'brat' and brought Graf Eisen out with a test swing. She didn't know why Signum was suddenly so hostile towards this newcomer, but he wouldn't survive calling her Brat.

Gray looked back and forth between the two, realizing he was in trouble and quickly put his hands up.

"You know." He began. "You look like you want to hurt me. But maybe you should go assist your friend before Captain Bardou shishkabobs her, or help those kids before Abby uses them for target practice. Hell, I can only guess what's going to happen when Alex rears that smug ass face of his…"

There was no movement for a few seconds. A loud boom as another building in the distance collapsed reminded them that there was a mock battle raging.

"He's right," Signum relaxed her stance as she regained her stoic composure. "We should provide some balance to the scenario. Nanoha limited herself to not attacking, so she'll need some protection."

And with a twirl she launched off the rooftop, leaving Vita still glaring at Gray, who whistled quietly.

"Nice ass… She definitely digs me."

Vita sighed in exasperation, realizing this guy was nothing more than a typical pervert.

"You going to go help those kids?" he asked.

"What about you?" she fired back. Gray looked around and shrugged.

"I did my job. I snuck up on you two. If this were a real mission, I would have incapacitated you already. Which means I've done what I have to do, so I think I'll sit this one out and watch the fun."

There was a pause. Vita mulled momentarily over the thought of putting this freak through several floors on principle, but a loud explosion from nearby demanded that she get in on the action.

"We'll kill you later," she snapped, and leapt off the rooftop.

"…And she's cute when she's angry," Gray shrugged.

* * *

"My name is Abigail Granger. Call sign Thanatos Three. I will be participating as your opponent."

Tia noted that the newcomer's eyes were focused on her even as she had dropped Erio and Subaru with snap shots. Though only a training scenario, there was no mistaking that somehow this just escalated beyond a mere morning practice fight. Still, the woman had managed to walk right into the middle of the scenario right under the nose of Crash's extremely powerful sensor array. Something didn't smell right. She needed more information. She needed to scout around.

"Keep them busy," she instructed. "I'm doing some quick recon."

After a telepathic affirmative, she dropped her extra doubles and focused on her own personal stealth.

Crash made to aim the MFR and lock on to Tia before she could fully cloak herself, but a hand from Granger stopped him.

"Concern yourself with immediate threats," she instructed. "Nothing that moves here goes unnoticed."

Crash contemplated the advice from what was until a moment ago, a seemingly ditzy blond girl. Her device was clearly visible now that she was holding still. It was a gun like Tia's, but seemed more compact. It was a revolver design incorporating what seemed to be the smallest cartridges he'd ever laid eyes on.

With a deft flick of her wrist, she snapped it open, disposing of six discharged micro-cartridges. Keeping here eye on Subaru, she calmly loaded six small red micro-cartridges.

"Don't tell me you need a boost from cartridges just to shoot," Subaru gaped, having reflexes fast enough to spot it as both she and Erio stood from where they had fallen.

Abigail smiled, that damned, disarming smile.

"You got me there. I've got D rank power, shooting's all I can really do in most fights."

And then once more, it returned to that serious business frown like Lynn sported.

"But don't think for a second that it's a handicap…"

Crash didn't know what to think at this point. She'd snuck up on him. She snuck up on all of them. In fact, it would probably be a good time to…

"How'd you manage to get here?" he asked.

"I walked."

Crash would have fallen right over if he didn't know she was dodging the question.

"You know what I mean," he grumbled. "I'm running enough active sensor sweeps to count the bricks in that building. But you got in undetected."

Abigail smiled. "Trade secret."

Dammit.

A moment later, her smile melted into a curious pout.

"We have company."

Crash kicked himself for ignoring his sensors. Quickly looking up as the HUD put brackets on something red and white and angry looking, he managed to make out a bunny…

"Vita?!" He snapped in surprise. She hadn't been in the fight, but things were shifting quickly. Only a moment later, his brain processed where she was going with that war hammer raised above her head. And every reflex and thought screamed the same thing.

"DODGE!"

Vita came down on Crash, fully intent to teach him not to hold still. She met empty air and smashed the sidewalk as he jumped clear. Vita, in the mood for smashing, was not what one would call a one-hit wonder. Graf Eisen was up and coming around in a move that could only be described as aggressive. In fact, aggressive would hardly be sufficient enough a description for Vita's attack as she chased Crash through several dozen meters of backpedaling. Her strikes were not subtle. There was no finesse to her wide swings, or subtle nuances to her strategy. It was pretty much a very simple affair. She just needed to hit. And once she hit him once, she would use the momentum to hit him again. And again, and again.

Crash, for his credit, successfully avoided this end result for a total of twenty-four combined swings and lunges before he ran into a problem.

He ran out of room to back up, as he discovered by backing right into a parked van.

However, this revelation had the positive result of jolting him out of his terrified funk, forcing him to think once more as Vita raised a deliberately gloating overhead smash. Crash jumped up and over Vita as she demolished the van. Now that he was thinking again, it was time to-

Hello Subaru.

Crash ducked as she tried to Revolver-Knuckle him upon landing. Only the heightened tension from Vita had kept him alert enough to out-pace the swing and duck the blow. Things quickly continued to go downhill for him as he realized he had no time to think on the safe side of Subaru's swing when Erio tried to skewer him on Strada. In the brief moment he had to roll to the side of the thrust, he managed to remember that they'd recovered from Abigail's shots just before Vita had charged in. Any wondering at where Abigail had suddenly vanished off to in the last few seconds was cut off as Vita increased the pressure of the attack.

Crash found himself unable to think much at all. From one direction, a hammer smashed everything in its path, from another, a fist, and a third, a spear. Where was Abigail?

* * *

The truth, is that just after crash shouted duck, an unaccounted for contender made itself known in the fight…

Freiderick, irritated at being ignored by the one named Crash, had been allowed by Caro to transform to full dragon form. Rather than some cute pocket dragon that had been following Caro around, the forty foot beast had swiftly, and silently ascended and dove in for a little fun terrorizing the test pilot.

What Freiderick hadn't expected, was that just when he was going to start his fun, Vita had launched an attack. In the fray, the newcomer girl in the hat had spotted him and somehow managed to bounce her way up the side of a building.

The Dragon Mount, under the care of Caro, was not unfamiliar to the abilities of powerful mages. But normally, he could sense their latent powers in the flow of the aether and feel their intent when they were preparing attacks. What occurred here confused Freid. He sensed very little of the intent in the flows around her, a near absense of magical strength which normally indicated a weak foe. But this just seemed off. He should be sensing these attacks.

Freid cursed in the ancient tongue of the dragons. A sound that to the uncultured ear of humans, was a menacing rumble. Unlike Caro, one whom he held dear, or the Boy, who he begrudged as a worthy ally, this fragile pest below him was without any true power, but managing to put up a fight. It made the Mount consider briefly just lobbing a few Mega Flares down to roast the entire building on the spot. A telepathic retort that felt as much to Freiderick's mind like what a rolled up newspaper did to a puppy thumped him proverbially as Caro objected to such hostilities in a mere training scenario. Perhaps his charge was right. Even for the long lived and ancient race of Dragons, Bar-B-Quing someone you just met without proper and regal introductions was just rude and unsophisticated behavior more suited to lesser beasts, like Lawyers.

Besides, the woman wouldn't even make a mouthful and he'd forgotten the Bar-B-Que sauce anyway.

Caro's next mental retort felt like slap with a paper fan. Perhaps the 'Humans are Crunchy and Taste Good with Ketchup' routine was getting a bit tired for this kind of battle. Very well then… Blast flares only, no Mega Flares. There was the image of a pleasant smile from Caro in Freiderick's mind.

Of course, he would demand to pester the Boy whom she called Erio a little more. Picking on him was such good fun.

Swooping around to launch a few of the small, weakly-explosive fireballs Caro had nicknamed 'Blast Flare', (Which really, were nothing more than what Freiderick considered the 'hairball' of the dragon world.) the Mount extended his senses to feel the presence of the White One, currently dodging around the attacks of the one named Lynn. Closing rapidly with the two was one of the Worthy, the Cloud Knight Signum. This was going to be good.

Not a creature to be distracted, Freid returned his attention to this pest, snapped a roll trying to avoid more of those annoying shots, and launched another 'Blast Flare'.

* * *

"BOOM!!!"

'Sixty-one, sixty-two, sixty-three…' Nanoha counted silently. Lynn's assault had gone on a full minute straight now. It was something to note that she managed to stay up to what had to be full driving now on a near constant offensive. The collapsing office tower behind her boiled into a cloud of smoke as testament to that power. Lynn was proving to be every bit of her title. Not even breathing hard after a full minute of attacking constantly at full power. Still, she wasn't launching busters. Just really compact physical enhancement attacks.

The Ace of aces would have loved to give a full test of Lynn's striking power herself, but the limitations of her own scenario pretty much put her on the run.

Another ferocious swing nearly split her skull asunder. She had to have noticed by now, was she really going all out?

"Are you trying to kill me?" she joked, Flash-Moving clear of a jab from Waldron. "This amount of force isn't really necessary."

"I train as I fight," Lynn responded pointedly. "And I fight, at full power."

Nanoha spotted one of her back hand-ornaments flash, felt the spike of power. It was like those instant spell cards the Leize twins used. Very, VERY fast. Waldron barked the attack name.

[MJOLNIR IMPACT]

Lynn raised to strike. Nanoha knew what came next.

[EXPLOSION]

"KABLAM!!!"

The blow caused a snap concussion, which shattered glass from undamaged structures around them. And then there was a pause as they both acknowledged the newcomer that had suddenly appeared. Signum held the blow above her head with the combined Sword and Scabbard combo of Levantine.

"You train as you fight," Signum began. "You wish to train at your full power?"

Lynn nodded, not speaking. Her eyes had a kind of direct focus.

"Then fight me," Signum finished, pushing off the Axe and floating back. "I need to take some stress out on something after the conversation with the moron I just met."

Lynn, to their mild surprise, raised one eyebrow.

"Met Gray have we?"

Signum blinked.

"How'd you know?"

"He's got that affect on all the ladies," Lynn shrugged. "The only thing that keeps me from splitting his skull in half is that he's really good at infiltration. Did he catch you off guard?"

"He did," Signum nodded.

"Then you are already dead," Lynn responded solemnly. "Or at least, you would have been in a real fight. Only Alex can top him in undetectable approach. If he chose to attack instead of flirt, you'd have a sword in your back."

Signum did her best to hide personal offense at that statement. She gripped Levantine a little harder and took a ready stance.

"I doubt it would be that easy," the Knight challenged, letting a smile creep onto her face.

Lynn lowered her head slightly, her features remaining pointedly neutral. Waldron raised to battle ready position.

"I would accept no less," she stated. "Just remember the Instructor's scenario stands. Defend her as well as yourself. If you can."

Nanoha looked between the two, and suppressed a laugh. Too bad she couldn't get in on this fight. One time she went rounds with Signum in a sparing match. It took Chrono blitzing her and Yuuno pulling off some wicked multi-binding spells while Arf and Shamal dealt with Signum just to break them up. It had been a total blast, but everyone had been worried they were about to kill each other. Looking at the two now, it reminded her of that time. They needed something to get them started.

"Readyyyyyyyyyyy…" she began, Raising Heart swinging up.

* * *

It made no sense to Tiana. Lynn had appeared, so had this new girl. Moving quietly around a full scale Melee in which Crash was busy trying not to get punched, smashed and skewered all at once time was a bit of a task. The guy was absolutely amazing at dodging.

Focus Tia!

Abigail was above, on a rooftop, running interference on Freiderick, irritating Caro's loyal companion more and more with every shot. Tia needed to figure out how that Girl had snuck up on them with no warning, saw through her illusions AND managed to snap a hip shot off and score a direct hit at a distance. But it made no sense. Lynn they could excuse as distance. But the girl litterally popped up beside Crash, with more active sensors going than a cruiser in battle mode. What's more, she was looking right at Crash. And for love or money she just couldn't figure out how the girl seemed to just step out from behind him in the middle of an empty street.

'I've got nothing!' she announced over their telepathic cross-link. 'Not even an optic hide could be as smooth and clever as that. Plus she's got nowhere near the power needed to pull it off.'

'Perhaps there is someone much like you supporting her,' Caro suggested. Such a comment would come from a supporting mage after all.

'With the range to cover Lynn from Nanoha's sensors at the same time?' Tia was incredulous. 'The problem with optic hide projections is that you have to be within visual range of those you're hiding. Otherwise the landscape projections become inaccurate.'

'Maybe they're doing something different,' Subaru responded once more.

'Like what?' Tia snapped back. 'Project a large scale illusion?'

'Heh heh heh heh heh heh…'

Tia froze. It was a new voice. And it was coming in on her telepathic reception.

'Heh heh heh heh heh heh…'

Without warning, the sky turned a stormy gray. The color and features of her environment faded to an equally dull feel. Nowhere were there signs of the fight she's been trying to sneak around. Only silence.

"What the?!" She began in surprise. "A barrier?! No, can't be…"

'HAHAHAHAHAHA!' This time, the laugh echoed from everywhere and within her own mind with seeming mirth at her statement. 'Bravo miss Lanster… Bravo…'

The environment returned to normal colors again, but the others remained disturbingly absent.

"How about a little one on one between gunslingers?"

There was a blur of movement from the left, and Tia focused to see the blond girl, Abigail, attacking her. Moving on reflex, she fired quickly. The blond girl twirled through the bolts and responded in kind with an extremely rapid series of shots. Tia ducked and threw up a snap barrier to defend, feeling three solid jolts as she did so. Then she raised Cross Mirage to counter…

Abigail leaned back impossibly, swinging her arms around herself, causing her to snap into a horizontal spin just feet off the ground, sliding right between shots from the Center even as two of them made to home in or her. She landed with more seeming impossibility and continued to spin, cutting lose with two more loud shots, intercepting the homing magical bolts.

They froze in place, weapons pointed at each other.

It was then that Tia managed to get her first look at Abigail's device weapon. Her eyes narrowed at the smoke still coming off the recently used cartridges. It was a six shot revolver mechanism that as she'd heard from Subaru, was powering the woman with mini-cartridges. Expensive logistics, not to mention a serious error in tactical planning. It made Tia smirk.

"You only have one shot."

Abigail blinked and cocked her head to the side.

"Is that a problem?"

Tia knew just enough from recent experience to resist the urge to plant her hand squarely on her face. Time to probe a little.

"And then you have to reload," she goaded.

"And?"

Patience…

"I don't."

Abigail shrugged.

"I fail to see the point."

There was no way this girl was this dense. She was bluffing. It was an attempt to confuse her so that she'd get a free shot. There was no way she could reload six rounds into that design before Tia could get the same number of shots off.

'Are you sure about that?'

It was that damned voice again.

'Get out of my head!'

'It's rather cozy in here, I think I'll stay.

'Damn you…'

'Careful… Keep your eyes on the enemy. Flinch and little Abby will embarrass you.'

Tia didn't want to listen to whoever this guy was, but he was right. Neither had fired or raised any kind of barrier. If she took her eyes off for even a second and 'Abby' caught it…

'Let me enlighten you to a little gem of information' the voice continued in self-satisfaction. 'In chess, there's a series of moves often referred to as the Queen's Gambit. This involves setting the pawns in the opening moves of a game as such that you are given a choice to either go on an offensive, Queens Gambit Accepted; or defend, Queens Gambit Declined. If you choose to accept, you will give up your initiative for freedom of movement, at the loss of control of the center. If you should decline, you choose to maintain the center here at the expense of your freedom to move. Depending on your opponent's abilities, either way is correct.'

Tia's eyebrow twitched.

'What does this have to two with us pointing pistol devices at each other?' she snapped off.

'Is she really bluffing?' the voice asked. 'Or is it perhaps a Discovered Attack?'

'Why are you telling me this?' Tia asked. 'Aren't you with her?'

'There's no fun in a one sided battle,' the voice seemed to fill to the brim with excitement. 'Abby's making it fair for you by using Thunder Six instead of Flanagan. I figured I'd give you a little heads up on what you're dealing with to make things entertaining. If you think Miss Abigail Granger is just some low power shooter, you'd be making a grievous mistake.'

'If it's so fair, why are you hiding?' Tia shot back. 'Seems like cowardice to me.'

'Hiding you say?' and then the voice broke into seemingly deranged laughter for a moment. 'My dear! I'm standing in broad daylight! You just refuse to see me!'

"Then step out where I can see you dammit!" she snapped aloud! "Stop playing around!"

'Very well then…'

The wall next to them shimmered slightly as something seemed to pass through it. First it started with a glove, and then an arm in a red coat sleeve followed it. Then he stepped through, clothed in a bright red coat and hat, sporting a pair of round sunglasses, and a toothy smile. The move was so very subtle and deliberate, that the transition made Tia shudder involuntarily as a chill ran up her spine.

"I, am Alexander Vladius Carrde," he announced with a sweeping bow. "You may call me Thanatos Two, call sign Nightmare."

Tia carefully kept one eye on Abigail as she glanced at the creepy young man, not a weapon in sight. Raising her other hand, an exact copy of Cross Mirage formed as the unit became dual-pistols. Alexander stiffened as she leveled the second unit on him.

"Queen's Fork," she announced. "I can attack two pieces simultaneously."

Alexander grinned.

"Once again, bravo."

"Another thing," Tia continued, smiling. "You're the one disguising everyone… You're the higher value piece."

Alexander stopped grinning.

"Zwischenzug." She stated, and shot Alex in the face. The illusion mage flopped backwards onto the ground.

"Instead of countering the direct threat, I make a move that is a greater threat…" she growled. "I'm a Forward Center, working chess style tactics is my job. Don't toy with me."

"Heheheheheh…"

Tia growled as Alex started to laugh from his spot on the ground.

This was different from before, he seemed to be losing his mind on the spot. She tightened her grip on Cross Mirage, just in case he tried anything else getting up. Alexander's laughing hit a crescendo as he laughed like a total madman.

"Good!" he began at last. "I'm IMPRESSED! You're no pitiful slouch like most of the halfwits who call themselves team leaders. VERY GOOD!"

And then he smiled eerily, still staring at the sky.

"But there's one small problem…"

Something cold pressed up against the back of Tia's head, and a voice like a snake hissed into her ear.

"I'm good at using the Sacrifice move,"

Tia's eyes widened as the man in front of her dissolved into shadows.

"Checkmate."

KABLAM!

"Mou…" Abby pouted. "I was having fun fighting her."

"Your Thunder Six doesn't pack as much wallop as Baskerville here does," Alex appraised. "She was going to throw a barrier up and block the shot. Even with a quickloader, she'd have you on the run."

"You always cheat by invading their minds and reading their moves," she complained. "It takes all the sportsmanship out of it."

"You could always fight the Dragon," he shrugged. "It's a shadow that's keeping him busy."

"Maybe," she smirked.

"HGGRRRGG!!!"

Alexander sighed at the sound of Crash's apparent distress coming over the short wave.

"Work…" he muttered.

"Never ends does it?" Abby smiled.

They turned just in time to watch Subaru come flying right over their heads and through the nearby building.

* * *

While Tia was busy getting set up for a blind side from 'Nightmare', Crash wasn't having such a good time. Despite everything he tried, he couldn't find the room to think between blows. Every time he found an opening, someone managed to fill the gap and force him back. To make matters worse, something was preventing Battery from tracing a vector for a MACH strafe. From the fragments of information he managed to get between dodges from Battery's assertive chatter. There seemed to be some kind of conflict between the Sonar Pulse Mapper, and the Magic Ranging Pulse Aperture. Apparently it was something about one sensor thinking there were solid objects in empty space, and air where solid objects were, while another was saying the opposite… And that made it impossible to plot a safe hop.

Crash, his mind to addled with 'dodge this!' and 'avoid that!' didn't really catch much on the analysis aside from the fact that he was pinned down, and he couldn't jump out of the noose. This was bad… He was trapped three to one with experienced close combat experts. He had to get out of this! He had to make his own opening and take control of the fight! At this point, any option was better than being stuck on the ground. Ducking an overly flamboyant swing from Erio, Crash took the brief opening to get a crouch going. The Grav Drive kicked in, and magic shifted to give him lift. It was mere formality of the action at this point to push off the ground. He'd clear them, and buy himself thinking time.

Vita, years of experience over anyone else, knew the motion for a rookie style takeoff the moment Crash had begun to crouch. She was in the air to meet him and ready with an overhead on reflex alone. Flying mages did not need to push off, but the body had a tendency to telegraph the intent even with the best training.

This kind of move was more academic to her than a game of Whack-A-Mole.

Graf Eisen scored a direct and jarring blow to Crash's head as he rocketed right up into the war hammer. The force of the blow served its purpose. Crash changed directions involuntarily upon impact and face planted into the street below.

Vita immediately bit into her free glove when she realized her combat reflex had kicked in. That blow was directly intended to kill, to smash a person's skull like a watermelon as quickly and clinically as possible. Even fully jacketed mages served little chance of surviving a direct blow.

Luckily, Crash wasn't dead thanks to his helmet, just dazed. Seeing two Subaru's rushing at him as he tried to stand up straight only brought about the thought of a good strong defense. Crash threw his arm out and flung up a barrier just in time.

Subaru was surprised by how quickly he'd managed to throw up a defense as she collided with the semi-transparent wall with a strange metallic thud. She'd seen it coming in and had decided to try a Vibration Shatter to tear it down. That seemed to work excessively on barriers, though this one was proving tough. Gritting her teeth, she pressed into it. Crack! Damn you!

As Crash's double vision started to settle, his mind began to reprocess and sort things out and once more get a hold of the situation.

Combat, out numbered, out fought, no hope of getting out of this pincer… He was trapped, dazed, and more than a little confused. Vita was around here and she was probably getting ready to tag him right this moment as he held off Subaru. Erio would be in on this fight soon enough even as the first crack in his barrier suddenly flared. The unmistakable sound of fracturing barrier defense made his heart rate jump by a factor of which Battery assessed as inherently unsafe. The device immediately responded as per the still active test safety protocols and flashed up an EKG warning monitor on the Heads Up Display, activated the heart rate alarm, and prepared to administer shock management.

Crash's mind all but froze on sudden seeming blaring of the alarm into his unsorted thinking and noted that Battery was taking medical precautions. Instinctively flicking his eyes around for why, his double vision finally solidified into the solid face of Subaru straining against his failing barrier…

…And her bright gold cybernetic eyes.

All thoughts ceased to function as his pupils dilated.

"HGGRRRGG!!!"

The sound that came out of the test pilot was best described as a gurgle, and a choked scream of a man having his vocal cords ripped from his throat over a walkie-talkie. It was enough to completely surprise Subaru, who momentarily relented on her attack to see what was the matter.

She didn't know quite what happened next, but in the blink of an eye, Crash's barrier snapped off, and something hit her with the force of a Mid-Childan High Speed Intercontinental Monorail. Stars exploded in her vision and for the next few moments she vaguely remembered passing through at least three solid concrete walls.

Vita snapped out of her own funk when she heard the rather disturbing sound broadcast on the short band. And she felt what came next. Cartridges, three of them, so fast it might as well had been one. She managed to look down at the source in time to catch the briefest instant of Subaru staring stupidly at Crash's power armored fist. His blow was so rapid and precise that the autoguard never caught it. Subaru's standard barrier jacket kept her face from imploding, but even then she went right through an office tower as if it were made of cardboard. The concussion pulse from the blow was loud enough to classify as a minor detonation.

The next few seconds seemed unreal. No sooner did Crash unwind the blow on the cyborg girl, then did he step in, start to push off, and disappear with a thump…

…Only to reappear tailing Subaru on her parabolic arc through the air, closing fast and wound back for a follow up, pouring on second burst of cartridges. Subaru, barely recovering from the first blow, had only enough time to protect her face as he struck her again, unleashing another concussion from the blow, and giving her a completely new arc.

Vita's eyes snapped back to Crash only to realize he was already following up AGAIN. This time, leaned back, looking down the MFR as what could only be described as a full power buster charged on the end.

Again, the feeling of three cartridges so fast they could have been one. And the buster fired.

Subaru, still lost in an easily traced parabolic arc through the air, had no chance to dodge.

The flash of the buster explosion and the thump of its concussion spurred the seemingly young Knight's brain into action.

Vita shot forward as fast as she physically could. Something wasn't right. A mental instruction to Erio ordered the boy to Blitz the test pilot before he could pull off another series like that. Crash just chained a combo together the likes of which she'd never seen. Three cartridges, a powered punch, a teleport, three more cartridges, another high powered attack, three MORE cartridges and a high power buster!? IN FIFTEEN SECONDS!

It was ill advised to use more than three to five cartridges over a period of ten to fifteen minutes. But nine of them in under half a minute?

"NO WAY!"

* * *

Subaru smacked into the ground lightly, her head still spinning from the blows she had taken. That was certainly new. Where Crash had managed to pull a combo from was anyone's guess, but he wouldn't catch her off guard a second time.

Speaking of the test pilot, Crash slammed into the ground a few dozen meters away, cracking the pavement as he did so. The cyborg sprang into action, charging him down. After what she'd experienced in this fight so far, she knew Crash wasn't exactly a close combat hotshot. Keeping him pressed would keep him occupied until Vita and the others could help her nail him.

Dodging a snap barrage of his high speed magic bullets (When did he start shooting that fast?), Subaru closed in to anchor him with a nice punch.

The butt of the MFR came around and inside almost immediately, smacking her fist to the outside.

Fast!

Subaru ducked back just enough to avoid his backhand as he let go with one hand to swing at her, placing the MFR over his shoulder. Subaru went for the momentary opening, and took another swing.

Slapped to the outside again, countered with a right hook. Subaru ducked the swing and stepped into what equated to a vicious uppercut. Somehow, Crash managed to lean back enough to avoid the blow before stepping back to maintain a correct fighting stance. Then he followed up with a string of jabs and punches Subaru was forced to defend against by slapping away in a reverse fashion to what he'd just done. Subaru upped the pace by trying to counter with a basic guard-break style, arresting momentum and driving a suitable offensive, before the same guard-breaking move was reversed on her.

It then struck her that not only was Crash actually fighting at this point, but fighting with her in close combat rather effectively without relying on his armor. In which case that meant-

Inattentiveness is the enemy of battle, and in losing her focus, Subaru missed the telegraphed motion as Crash reversed into a spin that started as a hook, and elbow checked her in the side of the head. Subaru lost her balance, spinning to the side with the momentum of the strike. Staggering to stay on her feet, she realized through the blinking lights of her vision that she was wide open, and that never ended well.

She was right.

* * *

Erio was closing fast, and saw what Subaru could not. Just after Crash caught Subaru, he pretty much unwound onto his right leg. The pilot refused to stop and give Subaru any time to collect herself. No sooner did he come to a halt then did his arms start wrapping the opposite direction. Pushing off his heavily planted foot, he brought it up, and around.

The kick was awkward for the angle it was started at, but it conserved the momentum of Crash's offensive none-the-less. Crash performed a complete three-sixty revolution and managed to clip Subaru in the side. The cyborg was taken off her feet and tumbled out of reach.

Erio charged in intending to take some pressure off Subaru. He knew he could take Crash long enough for Vita to help.

But still, Crash continued to surprise. He recovered from his kick and immediately grabbed the MFR from his shoulder with one hand, spun, and aimed the rifle directly at Erio.

The boy dodged instantly upon seeing the barrel leveling on him, even as three thermal rounds barely missed hitting him in the face. His direct attack halted, he landed and took up a guard stance. Good thing he trained with Signum a lot. Erio immediately threw up a barrier as a mix of Thermal, Shriek, and Percussion rounds pegged him. He'd never get close to Crash and manage to fight him on even terms at this rate.

Still, it gave Subaru the time she needed to get to her feet. If the girl was anything, it was tenacious and durable. She rushed Crash while his back was turned, intent on tackling him from behind to pay him back for that punch.

It was almost like he heard her thoughts as the MFR suddenly swung up and around, the pilot gripping the barrel with his free hand and switching his grip like a trained professional. His head snapped around and the next move as he stepped into it was obvious, and also unavoidable.

'KABLAM!'

It was just like when Vita got a blow in because you let your guard down. Like every bone in your body, even the ones made of titanium, were going to snap, and no matter what you did, you couldn't help but scream in pain, even if you had no air in your lungs. That was the feeling as Crash axe-handled her with the butt of the MFR, hitting hard enough to instantly drop her into the asphalt and crack it from the impact force of her own body.

Man, this was going to be sore tomorrow…

Erio jumped into motion the moment the barrel was off him, but kept the results of Subaru's charge in mind. He jabbed with Strada, aiming to catch Crash flatfooted, but to no avail. The pilot continued to seem to read the moves before they occurred, and was airborne, jumping actually, backwards, and upside down.

Erio pulled Strada in, and Crash landed and struck with the MFR again, seemingly intent on smashing the boy's face. Rolling Strada around, Erio did the best he could to get back into a correct stance but was forced to make his way there incrementally by fighting with Strada like a quarter staff. This close in, he could hear a distinct high whining sound coming from Crash's armor.

"He's full driving!" he snapped, jumping clear of the pilot.

He immediately grimaced, exchanging close combat with the armor for well-aimed rifle bolts. There was no true safe distance fighting the armor, that much was certain.

Subaru looked up from the asphalt where she was laying and grimaced. Full Driving? No wonder she got smacked down. Pushing herself up, there was a twinge of pain in her left shoulder where the last blow had landed. Her arm was stiff, and didn't want to move. Reaching with her other arm, she grabbed it tenderly and noted a lump where it shouldn't be. Getting one's shoulder dislocated definitely ranked a blow up there with Vita's best. With a quick pull, there was a satisfying pop, and the pain subsided, motion returning to her arm.

This was definitely going to be sore.

Subaru's sudden motion when she popped her shoulder into place caught Crash's attention. The pilot came around quickly on the more or less prone cyborg and immediately fired. Subaru only had enough time to watch him spin to realize she really needed to put up a barrier. It worked, but only just. Amid the surprise of such a hasty shot when she was already down, an armored fist made quick work of shattering the defensive measure and grabbed her by the hand she'd held up. Crash threw her like a rag doll, directly at Erio.

"What the-"

The young knight himself was in no position to avoid it, and was forced to catch Subaru, landing firmly on his rear and dropping Strada in the process.

"What's the matter with you!" Subaru began, looking at Crash. "You don't attack someone when they-"

'RATATAT!'

They both heard the sound and saw three red magic cartridge shells clatter on the ground, Crash aiming the MFR directly at the both of them, an obvious charging buster. Erio managed to voice his opinion.

"YOU'RE KIDDING RIGHT?!"

"ARE YOU INSANE?!" Vita screamed as she charged in. "CEASE FIRE!"

Crash flowed into the new attack from Vita as if it were his intent all along, a blue-white buster ripping forth at her as if to spite the comments she'd just made. It reminded her strikingly of the time when she'd almost had Nanoha blow her to kingdom come!

'BOOM!'

"Go go GO!" Erio shouted at Subaru as he Recovered Strada. Vita grimaced as she bounced off a building, the barrier she threw up blocked the brunt of the beam, but had thrown her anyway.

"I think he's lost it!" Subaru shouted, as they dodged several MFR shots.

"He lost it earlier!" Vita snarled. "This is totally bat-shit insane!"

"We need to stop the exercise," Erio yelped as a percussion-round nipped by. "Something's clearly wrong!"

"I got this babe!" a new voice suddenly chimed in. Someone quite quick on their feet blurred past, landing lightly behind Crash.

Vita resisted the urge to stare incredulously when she realized who it was. Was he insane?

Gray smirked as he placed a hand on Crash's shoulder.

"Watch how a master ninja handles this," he winked. "HEY! Take it easy!"

Crash lowered the MFR to glance at the newcomer…

"It's just practice man, chill out."

Crash let go of the MFR and raised his arm back, a fist balled.

"Oh…" Gray began, his eyes getting big.

'WHAM!'

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiii-" he wailed, as he got put through the wall of a nearby building. Vita winced, but suppressed a satisfied smirk at the sound of several loud crashes and the distinct chord of snapping metal that could only be a structural support beam.

"I'm okay!"

Part of the building collapsed, this time Vita winced in sympathy.

"I'm still okay!" Came a muffled response.

'RATATAT!'

Vita returned her attention to Crash, the MFR was up, another buster charging, aimed at Subaru, who was gawking at Gray's stupidity.

"IDIOT!" Vita shouted! "Don't stand still!"

Subaru's head came about and saw the charge, and she immediately dove to the side as the beam tore through her former position, ripping a hole in another building like paper. Erio saw his opening and charged in once more, if only to distract Crash from Subaru long enough to…

Distract him from Subaru?

Vita charged over to the Cyborg girl as fast as she could as Erio began to lose ground against the armor, and grabbed her, yanking the both of them down behind a parked car.

"What did you do to him!?" she snarled, making no attempt to control her irritation. Subaru looked shocked.

"What?!"

"He's after YOU!" Vita shook the taller girl by the shoulders. "Tell me what happened right before he started this!"

"I- I don't know!" Subaru responded, afraid Vita was going to be angry with her. "I was trying to break his barrier with my IS to get a good blow when he made this funny sound, and the next thing I know I'm on the receiving end of more combo moves than a fighting game! That's all I swear!"

Vita swore under her breath. There had to be more to it than just freaking out over combat. The guy could handle six to one odds against Combat Cyborgs but loses it against just one? There had to… Be.

"No…" Vita breathed. "There's no way."

"What?" Subaru asked, Vita's sudden mood swing was confusing to watch.

"Remember your Combat Psychology course?" The Knight asked.

"Yeah," Subaru replied. "Why?"

"I think I just figured it out," the Knight grimaced. "And it's both our faults!"

* * *

"Vita to Nanoha!" the voice crackled.

'BOOM!'

Nanoha dove below the blow as it swooped by Signum. When Lynn said that Nanoha was still the target, she made sure to live up to her word. For every attack she threw at Signum, there was a follow up planned for her.

Signum made no excuses, and seemed to enjoy the pressure of trying to cover Nanoha and press the fight against the Shock Enforcement Specialist. Levantine cracked like a whip in snake form as she tried to snare the silver haired mage. Yet Lynn evaded and kept her battle axe moving, resulting in a snap that shattered a length of one-hundred feet right off a building. It was no surprise that despite landing a few glancing blows, neither had yielded an opening for a decisive hit. As Nanoha watched, Signum was taking it like a practice fight with Fate, albeit more brutal. Lynn was fast like Fate, but relied on fewer tricks and more raw close combat skill.

"NANOHA!"

Over the sound of ripping concrete, it was hard to catch Vita's words, but Nanoha responded as she zoomed through debris raining down as dust and gravel.

"Go ahead!"

"It's crazy over here!" Vita snapped. "Crash has-"

'BOOM!'

Nanoha barely evaded that Impact attack by planting Raising Heart into the wall and leveraging off it. Signum shot in between her and Lynn and threw her Scabbard into the mix.

"-and he's fighting like I've never seen before!"

"Good!" Nanoha smiled, dropping away from the two combatants. "I knew he had it in him."

"WHAT?!" Vita's voice crackled back. "I don't think you understand! He's completely lost-"

'Clang!'

Signum managed to leverage Waldron out of Lynn's grasp. Nanoha absent-mindedly batted the Axe back up to them as it came twirling down. Lynn rebounded off the wall of the building and grabbed it.

"-going through cartridges like water-"

Batting the Axe back proved to be a silly move as Lynn came ripping down at her, her hand flashing as another Mjolnir Impact flared up. Nanoha was forced to Flash Move away from the Axe as the sidewalk below her received the attack, exploding into a tower of concrete debris and dust.

"-if I hadn't stepped in!" Vita finished.

"Mou…" Nanoha mulled for a brief moment as Signum hit where Lynn had landed with a projectile attack. "Just keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't overdo it with those Cartridges… We don't want him to get hurt."

"I'M NOT CONCERNED ABOUT HIM GETTING HURT!" Vita snapped back.

"That's not very Professional of you Vita," Nanoha chided, then zipped skyward as Lynn erupted from the dust cloud. "I know you better than that too… You can handle it."

"But-"

"Can't talk anymore," Nanoha cut her off. "If I let myself be distracted anymore, Captain Bardou's going catch me. She's nearly done so three times now… Nanoha Out."

"WAIT- NANOHA!"

[LINE CLOSED]

Nanoha broke left just in time to avoid the blur of Lynn as she ripped by. Signum shot across from another angle, Levantine expelling a cartridge as they did so.

* * *

"THE HELL!" Vita snarled. "USELESS IDIOT!"

Subaru winced at the outburst before asking.

"I take it we're on our own?"

Vita scowled at her.

"Hell no," the Knight began. "I'm getting those enforcers to-"

Erio smashed into the top of the car and rolled to face them, he looked a little flushed.

"Scatter!" he snapped, and Strada fired, launching him skyward. Subaru ducked in and took off one direction while Vita dove in another. A second later a trio of thermal rounds peeled the roof of the vehicle off, leaving it a smoldering wreck.

"Screw this, ATTACK HIM!" Vita snarled as she got airborne. This was starting to piss her off.

"Right!" Subaru responded. If she was the target, time to be bait! "I'll draw his attention!"

With a thought, she activated a Wing Road and took off.

"Don't stop, whatever you do!" Vita warned.

"I don't plan on it!" Subaru replied, and then discovered that being the bait wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Crash did indeed take the bait, by dropping a percussion round right in front of her. The trouble with a Wing Road was that it pretty much told everyone and their GRANDMOTHER where you were going. The disorienting thump of the round made her ears pop and caused her to trip, tumbling onto her face and almost falling right off the false surface. Luckily, Subaru managed to catch herself on the edge, swing around under it, and fling herself back up to grab the opposite side. "Plan failed!" she snapped in a gasp while she started pulling herself up. "Need new-"

Crash landed right in front of her.

"PLAN!"

Vita was on it, having seen it coming. She shot in right over the girl and tore into Crash with Graf Eisen. Crash spun with the blow and somehow managed to grab the shaft, turning the impact into a launch as he let go of her. Vita turned into the swing, trying to orient herself.

Correcting from accidental over-swings was rookie technique for a veteran hammer user.

Handling four shriek rounds delivered into your abdomen on auto fire was not.

Vita tried her best to catch her breath as she slid to a stop on her feet.

"Don't just hide out acting cool," she huffed. "Get your teammates!"

"Yes ma'am!" Gray snapped, dropping out of a shadow and bounding around a corner.

Erio landed behind and tried to cover Subaru long enough for her to jump away, but Crash turned on him just as fast as he'd thrown off and shot Vita. The blow was parried, forcing him to yank Subaru by the arm and rocket back and away.

"CARO!"

The Mighty Ancient Dragon Freiderich swooped in with a roar, unleashing a fury of blast flare attacks at the beckoning of his mistress. After being lead around by nothing more than a shadow of the gunslinger girl by an admittedly talented illusion mage, there was no word in human language to describe his desire to crunch on the bones of some unworthy pest…

'Bonk!'

Fried did his best dragon equivalent to a sigh. Not even one crunchy? Might as well settle for blasting the one named Crash.

Friederich swooped low over Crash, who'd thrown up a barrier just long enough to block the nearest flare before rushing towards the massive beast.

Freid buzzed low over the Wing Road before letting his tail crack down on it, shattering the section it struck and causing the rest to begin breaking down. Swinging up and around, the dragon tucked his wings back and swooped in for another pass. He'd make this arrogant pilot regret challenging him.

As he swooped low, Crash dove on the ground, rolling to stay under Fried's attack. That's right puny human! Cower like the vermin you-

Something small and strong suddenly pinched the Dragon's tail, and it was heavy. Looking back as he climbed, Fried spotted Crash, clamped tight with one hand to the end of his tail. That just wouldn't do! You don't grab a dragon by the tail and live to tell about it! It's absurd!

"Shake him off!" Caro instructed while giving a yank on the, more or less customary reigns.

This was not an instruction Freid needed to be told. Arching his back, the dragon hooked his body and dove, then curved hard up and dove again, whip-lashing his tail. Crash lost his grip and was flung right up over them.

Making sure his mistress was holding on tight, the mount rolled onto his back and presented his claws. He'd catch this little bugger and take him for the ride of his life.

'RATATAT!'

The sound was all too familiar, as was that surge of power. Even the mighty Freid was flabbergasted as Crash aimed a buster attack at him in mid air. In an instant, the dragon realized the mistake of presenting his soft underbelly to such an unpredictable aggressive force.

While not powerful by dragon's terms, getting shot in the stomach by a beam attack hurt. It was enough to make the mount roar in anger as he lost control of his flight and ended up tumbling towards a building.

Caro did her best not to panic as Freiderich loudly expressed his displeasure. Still, she couldn't help but yelp when she realized she was going to be smashed under the bulk of her very own…

"Caro!"

Not that Erio would let that happen. Freid slammed into the building head first and crumpled into a heap just as the lightning fast knight-in-training managed to bolt in and out of the opening, pulling the summoner free of her saddle before it was crushed.

Freiderich growled as he shook his head out of the wall. The dragon really didn't like headaches.

"How many cartridges is that now!?" Erio shouted towards Vita.

"Eighteen!" She responded.

"Is he ever going to run out!?" he continued.

"No idea!" Vita snapped back as she threw up a Swallow Flier. "I've never seen anyone spam those things like this!"

If this kept up, he'd give himself a heart attack. Overstressing the limits of the body by forcing more magic than it was conditioned to handle was highly destructive. For a C rank mage like Crash, pushing what had to be triple A power spikes like this was going to destroy his internal organs.

Where was that ninja with her backup?

* * *

'Morning sleepyhead… It's time to get up.'

Tia couldn't remember the last time she'd heard her brother's voice. It had been such a long time. After he died on that mission years ago, the thought of ever hearing that voice as anything other than a distant echo of her memories had dwindled to dust.

'I said it's time to get up! Rise and shine! It's a whole new day FULL of opportunities and possibilities…'

It was so comforting to hear his voice once more. It brought back so many warm memories. But wait… If her brother was dead, how was he talking to her? And why did her head hurt so much?

'I said…'

"WAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!!!!"

Tiana sat bolt upright with a shriek as the voice suddenly multiplied into a chorus of inhuman screams and the image of her brother morphed into a sixty foot tall monster made of razor blades, tentacles, and hungry mouths full of teeth.

"I'M AWAKE!" she gasped looking around in a panic.

"Good," Alexander smiled toothily, backing away from her face. "Can't have you sleeping on the job when there's work to be done."

Tia blinked for a second, and then it all came flooding back to her.

"YOU!" she snarled, raising Cross Mirage and aiming at the Red-hatted mage. "That was a dirty trick!"

Alex scoffed as he stood up straight.

"There are no dirty tricks, only effective ones," he chided her. "Remember that, or next time the person who shoots you could be aiming to kill, not incapacitate."

"Is she awake?" Abigail jogged up, then noted the Center sitting up and glaring angrily at the illusionist. "Oh good! Gray says to hurry up, the armored guy just dropped the dragon."

Tia blinked.

"What?"

"You don't see that every day," Alex grinned. "The Runt must be having puppies by now…"

"Don't let her hear you say that," Abby pouted. "She's a real Belken Knight after all…"

"Makes no difference to me," Alex shrugged it off. "Titles are meaningless banter to give people a feeling of self importance."

"What's this about dropping a Dragon?" Tia interrupted.

Alex regarded her with a glance, and for a moment Tiana could almost swear she was getting evaluated in the same context as a masquito.

"It seems that while you were taking your impromptu nap," he began. "The armored combatant who was your opponent originally, went and had himself a nervous breakdown…"

"Nervous breakdown?" she asked. "Like, how?"

Alex grinned.

"He's gone berserk…" Alex measured the puzzled look on her face before continuing. "Gray informed me that Crash did quite the number on your cyborg friend. Good thing she's a cyborg. That toughness came in handy it seems."

"WHAT?!" she shouted. "There's no way-"

"We can discuss this on the way," the Illusion mage interrupted. "Your team has their hands full if he really did drop a Higher Beast like Freiderich."

Tia was already on her feet and running towards the distant sounds of fighting as Alex finished. With a pop, she fired the grappling cable from Cross Mirage to a nearby building and pulled herself into a swing. Alex looked at Abigail, who shrugged, then lifted off the ground lightly and shot forward. Gray bounced down a moment later and picked the gunslinger up, and then leapt his way to a rooftop before giving pursuit.

Tia was just reaching the top of her swing and preparing to fire another grapple when Alex scooped her up and then accelerated.

"Alley Oop…" he commented. "This method's a bit faster."

"Thanks," she blinked in surprise.

"Don't mention it," Alex replied. "Normally I wouldn't bother, but I like your style."

"Incoming!" Gray shouted from nearby. There was a flash of blue.

"Ride's over!" Alex commented, dumping Tia and flying up just as a buster cut between them.

Tiana managed to correct herself for the landing and collect her wits before looking on. Crash was the center of attention as attacks were coming at him from all sides. If his dodging had been impressive before, this was amazing. Amidst a trio of Vita's flying metal spheres, potshots from Caro, and blitzes from Erio, the test pilot seemed to step his way through the mess as if he knew exactly where to place himself. That wasn't all, he was firing off the MFR and taking swings with the butt or his fist at anyone who presented a target for them.

"Tia!" Subaru raced up, bounding off a wing road. "You should see some of the stuff he's pulled off! It's crazy!"

"Crazy nothing!" Tia snapped, looking at the pilot continued to weave an invisible pattern as a loud thumping shot from Alexander's device began to add to the mix. "When did he learn to full drive like that?"

"He's not Full Driving," Vita huffed as she landed, ducked around a wall, and popped open Graf Eisen. "He's OVERDRIVING."

"OVERDRIVING?" Tia gaped. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Dangerous nothing," the Knight commented as she started loading fresh cartridges into her hammer as fast as she could. "He's gone through twenty-three cartridges in five minutes and shows no signs of fatigue. I'm starting to think that in his state, he's either pumped full of enough adrenaline not to notice, or his device figured out how to create a tolerance feedback loop to reinforce his linker core. Either way, the biological damage may very well kill him before we can stop him."

"How do we stop something like that?" Tia asked, looking as Crash threw a barrier up to block the sniper-accurate shots from Abigail.

'BANG!'

[RELOAD]

Vita looked up as Graf Eisen hissed out some steam.

"I don't know," she said. "I expected him to do well, but not to have this kind of potential."

"What kind of potential produces THAT from a C rank mage?" Tia asked, disgusted. Vita gave her a wide-eyed glare.

"He's an experienced Test Pilot," she informed the Center. "He spent every day observing, analyzing, thinking, dodging hazards, and exploiting holes in whatever projects he was working on…. That's all the fundamentals of basic combat, sans the combat stress. He's probably got ten years worth of experience packed into two. The only thing that kept him from exploiting that was the fact that he was scared and didn't think he could fight…"

"And what about now?" Tia asked.

"His mind isn't getting in the way," Vita answered directly. "I think he had a mental relapse, or something related to that incident everyone was talking about where he survived direct attack by multiple Combat Cyborgs."

"He's on AUTO-PILOT?"

"I just went through four cartridges and didn't even put a scratch on him," Vita admonished. "You're looking at the closest thing to an automated killing machine as you can get without building one. Auto-pilot is an understatement."

"Great!" The forward proclaimed sarcastically. "Just what I wanted. A fight with a walking blender!"

"Heh," Vita laughed. "You and me both."

"What's the plan?" Tia asked, turning serious.

"There's enough of us now to wear him down," the Knight began. "You stay spread out with the other ranged users and keep shooting. I'll take Subaru, Erio, and Gray, and we'll rush him all at once. He seems to be able to find any and every hole in our attack, but if he's got no hole, he's got no options."

Vita leapt into the air.

"Whatever you do," she continued. "Keep shooting, and don't stop until he stops moving!"

"Right," Tia nodded, waving Subaru to move. "Ready when you are!"

"Come on!" Vita shouted. "Attack!"

There was a spike of energy in the air as everyone went through a cartridge one way or another at almost the same time. Subaru rocketed over on a Wing Road, roaring a battle cry along side Vita as they prepared to Tag Team. Erio rebounded off a car and closed the pincer with Gray from the opposite direction.

In unison, a number of magic bolts and projectiles started raining down as Cross Mirage joined a chorus of devices barking out loud cracks and chimes and the roar of one very pissed off Dragon.

Crash moved almost as a blur, racing forward to avoid a Blast Flare before throwing up a shield to block Abby's accurate shots. Then ducked and rolled under Vita as Graf Eisen cratered the concrete next to him, only to grab Strada just below the head as Erio jabbed with it and hurl the boy directly into Subaru. Amidst several of the impacting shots, Crash weaved impossibly between them to catch Gray trying to cut him down with a wicked looking katana, and socked him in the face. While Gray momentarily paused from the blow, Crash grabbed him by his jacket and pulled him around hard into a few of the incoming bolts, then threw him aside.

"RATATA-RATATA-RATATAT!"

"NINE?!" Vita's eyes bugged out.

Crash swept his arm up in an arc with the MFR. There was a loud trio of booms as three beams fired in rapid succession from the end. Freid rolled and dove to the side to avoid one aimed at him. And Tia had to drop flat on her stomach to avoid one that scorched one of her hair ties as she dropped.

Alexander grinned wildly as he shifted himself to the left, letting the beam aimed at him pass harmlessly to the side.

"This is MY kind of fight!" he exclaimed in glee. "No holding back, no pointless talking… Just RAW, unspoiled FIGHTING!"

Baskerville barked viciously in response as he continued to fire at the armored opponent.

Vita jumped back to avoid Crash backhanding her on the rebound. The way he just escalated meant the plan was dead in the water. There was only one idea left.

"FUCK THIS!" she swore vibrantly, her rage coming out on top. "DOGPILE HIS SORRY ASS!"

There was no need to repeat it. All at once, everyone rushed. Crash managed to knock Gray into a wall and nearly give Subaru a concussion before Caro, of all people, managed to latch herself onto his free arm and fix him with a determined pout.

Subaru was next to get a hold of one of his legs before Tia jumped on his back.

Crash kept going. The armor could handle five tons. Flailing madly, the MFR switched into Lance Rifle Mode and Tia nearly let go when Howler Flares erupted next to her face.

Amidst the howling storm, Vita felt the energy spike of three more cartridges.

"GET HIS HELMET OFF!" She snarled over the noise. "GET IT OFF SO I CAN KNOCK SOME SENSE BACK INTO HIM!"

Gray charged into Crash head on and latched onto his chest in an attempt to knock him down, but Crash managed to stay on his feet with his free foot. Erio latched onto his weapon arm and tried his best hold it in place. Tia fought to stay in place as she wildly worked to find the release latch, but Crash's head snapped around back and forth too fast to get a good grip.

"GET HIS HELMET OFF!" Vita screamed once more. Abigail slid in and managed to Grab a hold of Crash's other leg. This allowed Subaru to let go with one hand and grab the other leg in order to pull them together, causing Crash to waver in place for a moment. Then Alex landed and grabbed him, pulling them all down. Crash's arms flailed uselessly as he tipped, trying to maintain control the best he possibly could.

"KRACK-POW!!!!"

It was a full power Hyperlance Extension, and the plasma concussion from it was like having an artillery piece fired in your face. Erio was dislodged by the pulse, as was Caro and Tia, but everyone else managed to tumble to the ground still attached to Crash's armor.

"EEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"

Everyone froze in place, and for the first time in five minutes, there was total silence. Save for the fading echo of the lance shot. Vita, a chill having shot up her spine from that scream, turned to look.

A hundred meters away, Lynn and Signum were both floating stock still in the middle of an exchange, sharing a look of shock at Nanoha.

Nanoha, who was floating just a few meters away, was doubled over holding Raising Heart, and tenderly patting her lower back. Where she was patting, her barrier jacket was charred black and smoking.

"Ow ow ow…" she hissed in pain. "So that's what that can do…"

"Heh…" a filtered voice began. "Heheh… Heh… HAHAHA!"

Vita turned to scowl as Crash stood up, everyone letting go as he did so.

"I win…" he laughed. "I got her… Mission complete."

He tottered but managed to catch himself, and then his voice came out much weaker…

"I… Win…"

The lance rifle clattered to the ground as his arm dropped. Crash staggered a step before simply stopping where he was and pitched forward onto his face with a clang, where he lay unmoving.

Vita grit her teeth and growled again before realization dawned on her, causing her eyes to go wide in shock.

"MEDIC!" She howled at the top of her lungs.

"What?!" Nanoha's head shot up in reflex.

Everyone made a mad scramble for the collapsed pilot, the scene erupting into a jumble of concerned voices as they each made to lift a portion of his body up.

Crash barely heard what was going on, his head swimming, everything blurring…

"Get his helmet off… Get him some air… "

"-Thirty three cartridges in under five minutes,"

"That's insane!"

"He's going into shock!"

"Get Shamal out here, get her NOW!"

[EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE TO TRAINING AREA]

"Check his breathing, check his pulse… Elevate his feet, make sure-"

And everything faded to black.


	9. Chapter 9: Chain Inaction

**11:51 AM**

**Cranagan City**

**Northeast District**

**St. Hilde's Academy.**

"Good morning, and welcome to today's edition of Midday Meal Cast here on Weather Link, sponsored by Aperture Systems. I'm Naru Narusegawa, and this is our chief Meteorologist and Weather Control Magic Expert, George Davidson. Broadcasting live to you today from our studios here in Cranagan. Looks like it's shaping up to be a beautiful day to be outdoors today isn't it George?"

"Indeed Naru, it looks like things are going to cooperate for lunch today here in the City of Towers. Temperatures are looking to remain in the lower seventies throughout the lunch hour as people head out to hit the major spots on Sinclair Avenue and along Marina Parkway…"

Its funny how many parallels you find when you examine two civilizations that are completely unrelated to one another…

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. And when you look at two civilizations of humans, however separated they may be in terms of history, culture, and dimensional location, the needs remain the same. Thus, it is by no mere coincidence or leap of logic that the exact same 'inventions' would be made without any kind of interaction between the two, let alone influence one another.

The Mid-Childan Ocean and Atmospheric Evaluators, or MOAE as they are called, would be one such example. The proverbial parallel to Earth's NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), they would be responsible for all things pertaining to weather forecasting and the monitoring of meteorological and oceanic events across all of Mid-Childa. An important part of the day for a population in the billions, they prided themselves on accurate and up-to-date weather modeling.

The significance of this however, was pretty much lost on little Vivio as she snacked on an apple slice.

"As you can see from the satellite picture," George continued. "A strong area of low pressure's been steaming across the North Ceres Ocean, pulling along a cold front that's dumped rain as far south as the McGreggor Archipelago. This system is expected to reach us here in Cranagan some time tomorrow morning as the frontal boundary drags onshore, with an increased chance for thunderstorms as the warm moist air ahead of the front gets forced up over the Selumna Range. After which you can expect a mild cool down and steady rains into the evening hours. So don't make too many plans for the beaches this weekend."

George Oscar Davidson, the weather expert currently talking on the TV, was not merely a nice person who liked to help people. He was a man to be respected.

It was a tangent memory that stirred in Vivio. But after Jail's attack on HQ, and her subsequent kidnapping, she'd seen the Doctor watching the weather. Obviously, knowing now after the fact, he wanted to make sure he wasn't going to fly a three-kilometer long magical battleship through the middle of a thunderstorm. But that's not what had been odd.

It was what the serious cyborg girl, Tre, had done. No sooner did George appear on the screen, than Tre seemed to freeze up, duck into a far corner, and ball up on the ground. All while muttering 'Finger of God' over and over again as she rocked back and forth.

Despite being frightened of what the doctor was preparing to do, she couldn't stifle curiosity, and had asked a question.

The Doctor had explained amidst a unnerving chuckle that Tre had been on a 'mission' that a storm chasing team had been far too close to, and she had decided to ensure they wouldn't interfere, or even report her. Unfortunately, what nobody had known was that George, a meteorological expert leading the storm chasing convoy at the time, was also an unregistered weather control mage.

A POWERFUL weather control mage.

George's intimate knowledge of Meteorology made for an unexpected surprise. Tre could not have known what George was capable of doing. Nobody could have. Davidson was a noted pacifist. However, when his team were suddenly faced down with a combat cyborg and a supporting squadron of drone units, the gloves came off.

The Doctor had loved it. Tre had not. The Meteorologist had taught her the true meaning of the term EF-5 Tornado, and let her and the drones experience the wrath of a mile wide vortex of pure destruction.

The reason of course, that the Doctor had loved it so much, was that someone of such absurdly exceptional power had slipped under the Bureau's radar for decades, right under their nose. Evaluation of the data Tre had managed to bring back put Davidson easily at Double S strength. And when the Bureau inevitably found out, they wanted to employ him, and he refused. Even after their offers of absurdly high pay ranks, and threats of slapping all kinds of restrictions on his power. He reminded the TSAB that he was a pacifist, and he was there to help people, not hurl lightning bolts in judgement. He would not be doing missions for the TSAB beyond forecasting, and that was Final.

Jail respected Davidson as a man who stuck by his word, no matter what. In a twisted way, a man that was like the Doctor himself, only in a less 'questionable' field.

After this of course, every time Tre ever saw George, she'd curl up in a ball, muttering 'Finger of God… finger of God…'

The Doctor then commented that after the incident, he had forbid anyone from going near MOAE, its offices, or any of their representatives. He said: 'You could beat mages. You can beat armies. You could even beat the TSAB if you were prepared. But you can't beat the weather."

He then pointed out with a laugh, that if you took the first letter from each part of the meteorologist's name… You spelled G.O.D. And it was no Wonder Tre had been stomped.

It was so funny that Vivio had momentarily forgotten her fear, and hadn't even realized Scagletti was sedating her.

"And now," George continued on the screen. "Our Seven on the Sevens. The seven day forecast on the sevens of every hour, followed by the tropical outlook. Stay tuned."

Random memory aside, Vivio was with Fate-Mama, who was looking into a few different schools in the area to help Nanoha-Mama figure out which one would be the best. Nanoha-Mama had been busy of course with some kind of special morning training, so she couldn't do it herself today, but she promised that she'd be there for the final decision.

Saint Hildes' Academy was one of the higher-class schools in the area. Its campus was complete with school levels from primary school all the way to University Level, and was a very strong in the academics, magic, and archeology areas. The archeology department was obviously what got Uncle Scrya to recommend it in the first place. He wouldn't have bothered otherwise.

It boasted a program that combined the application of knowledge, history, and magical studies to be one of the most well rounded and complete Magical Education complexes on Mid-Childa. Most other schools on Mid-Childa by comparison treated Magic courses as something more like an Athletics Department. Not true with Saint Hildes'. They believed that mages should be well prepared to apply their abilities as intelligently as possible, and often combined classroom lecture with practical training. Many of the mages who graduated from this school were often selected for VERY good positions within the TSAB.

Of such positions included Naval Commanders, such as Admiral Lindy Harlown, mother to Admiral Chrono Harlown, and adopted mother of Fate Testarossa Harlown.

"I grew up in this school," Lindy remarked. "My homeroom was down that hall and to the right. I took my first flight exam as part of the advanced placement magic course from the roof up the stairs. The courtyard over there is nicknamed Marrow Field because of all the people who broke a limb falling off the roof."

"Exam failures," Fate laughed.

"All the time!" the retired Admiral smirked from her spot across from Fate. "I remember Clyde used to get into all kinds of trouble for encouraging them to practice without supervision. The Dean said his name fit so well with all the trouble he got into. I never understood why."

Fate returned a pleasant smile to her adopted mother. She had a vague idea why, but wouldn't be able to confirm it without asking Nanoha.

"Then Daedalus would come along and bail him out with overly sophisticated excuses, and spend the rest of the evening calling him all kinds of silly names," Lindy continued.

"Daedalus?" Fate asked?

"Clyde's best friend," Lindy answered. "Those two were about as alike as styrofoam and plate armor, but they were inseparable friends. Clyde would get into trouble, end up with detention or something. Daed would show up and manage to get him out of there with an excuse."

"Sounds like a good team," Fate nodded. Lindy suppressed a laugh.

"You didn't know Daed. The staff did. They knew he was just getting Clyde out of his punishment, but they allowed it because they knew he'd make Clyde pay for it three fold in his own way. He'd make poor Clyde study until daybreak with him without mercy so many times they called him the Shadow of Midnight. Clyde would fall asleep in class and get punished AGAIN. The longest number of times in a row that happened was five days. Clyde practically fell asleep standing up apologizing to me for missing a date."

Fate suppressed a giggle at mental image of the late Clyde Harlown, back in his late teens, trying to explain why he was late while actively dozing off at the same time.

"Speaking of which," the retired Admiral continued. "I heard Shari stayed up all night working on that equipment you brought in?"

Fate nodded, casting a glance at Vivio.

"Yes," she began. "She pulled an all-nighter. When I checked on her around seven or so this morning, she was still typing away amidst a pile of foam coffee cups. She doesn't know how it works yet, but she already found something interesting about the pod."

The elder woman leaned in slightly. "Go on…"

Fate glanced at Vivio again, engrossed in her lunch and staring at some commercial, then returned to her adopted mother.

"The casing's made of Polystannum Chloride."

"Plasteel?" Lindy frowned. The material could only be replicated by magical engineering techniques. It was the same chemical structure as Polyvinyl Chloride, but carbon atoms were intermittently replaced with tin, producing a stronger, more metallic material that still felt like mere plastic to the touch. It was light, but several times stronger than conventional plastic for its weight, rivaling many pure metal compounds in the strength-for-weight category. As such it was a favorite to many mages for their devices. In fact, it was light enough that a nine-year-old could pick up a device and handle it with minimal effort, but strong enough to handle the punishment of close combat. The only issue was that Plasteel was inflexible and brittle compared to regular materials, thus, ill suited to large-scale structural engineering.

Still, the use of Plasteel was a disturbing thought. Intelligent devices could restructure themselves and materialize their own alloys. But outside of that, plasteel was not in wide use. It was expensive. Anyone with the resources to spend on magical processes for the creation of plasteel had money, or power to spare. That was not a pleasant thought.

"Plasteel," Fate nodded. "What's more, is she found plasteel and graphene in the robot arm we recovered." That was an even less pleasant thought.

"Definitely the work of someone with resources," Lindy nodded solemnly. "It makes their attack on Selene all the more suspect. What do you think they were after?"

"I don't know," Fate sighed. "Rein had pulled a comprehensive database search. According to survey records she pulled up, the FLMP-8 Facility was built in the former location of a coal fired electrical power plant that was destroyed and buried one hundred and fifty years ago during the war. The cavity I found used to be part of the hopper for the baghouse."

"That would explain the preliminary results of the forensics team I sent your soil sample to," the elder Harlown replied.

"How's so?" Fate asked.

"Ash," Lindy stated. "Coal fly ash. The entire room was coated with it."

Fate screwed her face up trying to wrap her mind around it.

"What would a terrorist group want in a room full of soot?"

"I don't know," the retired Admiral admitted. "But I asked the forensics team to analyze it anyway. I reviewed a few other incidents involving Sektor Twenty-One power plant attacks. But this is the only one where they did something like this. Every other facility was a power plant like Selene, a raw mana reactor. What's more, there's a large amount of the hillside around the excavation hole that's missing material."

"What do you mean?" Fate asked.

"You might have missed it," Lindy continued. "You were a bit preoccupied from what I read. But I noticed it in the reports from the cleanup crews. There should have been hundreds of tons of earth piled around that hole. It's like they strip-mined the entire corner around that cooling tower."

Fate sighed and looked at Vivio again.

"There has to be something we're missing," she continued after a second, her face turning into a glare. "Something stupidly obvious!"

"If it were that easy, we'd have caught the masterminds of Sektor Twenty-One years ago," Lindy responded. However it was obvious by the matching frown on her face that she was thinking along the same lines.

"My dear, such a sour face is unsuited for one with such beauty as yourself."

Lindy froze... That absurdly flowery pickup line…

"It couldn't be."

Turning around, Fate swore the older woman's face nearly lit up like the sun at the sight of the stranger who had addressed them.

"DAED!"

The man standing before them smiled at the recognition.

"Nice to see I'm not forgotten, Lindy."

Fate gave him the once over. He was tall, his hair was long, and tied back with a ribbon. The hair itself was silver, showing his age, but his face looked deceptively young. He seemed to put out an air of dandy that was only complemented by the white suit he was wearing to match his hair. In one of his hands, both of which were covered in beautiful white satin dress gloves, he sported a small book on petrography.

As he peered back at her over the top of his spectacles with his light xanthous

eyes, Fate couldn't help but feel her face flush. He was very handsome.

"And who might this striking young lady be?" he continued, raising an eyebrow.

"This is my daughter, Fate," Lindy answered.

"One of the famous Aces if I recall," Daedalus commented as he took Fate's hand and gave it a peck. "A pleasure."

"You're laying on the charm thick as you always used to," the retired admiral smirked. "If I didn't know you better than that, I'd have fallen for it."

"Am I that transparent?" The gentleman responded with a false hurt look.

"Maybe to me," Lindy answered honestly, then cast a look at Fate, who had turned a darker shade of red. "I don't think she's had experience with smooth talking vipers such as yourself though…"

"I apologize," Daedalus stepped back. "The Sophisticated Romantic act is good for social functions. You know how I like to keep my social weapons sharpened."

"So why are you here?" Lindy asked, swiftly switching gears.

"Ever to the point as always," he shrugged. "I work here."

"Work here?"

Daedalus swept down in an overly flamboyant bow.

"Professor Daedalus Malandra," he announced with flourish. "Head of the Ancient Belken Studies department. You're not the only one who's had a career go well. What about you Lindy? I haven't heard from you since the incident Clyde passed away."

"We're investigating schools for Vivio," she pointed out the young child still transfixed on the TV, but almost finished with her apple slices. Daedalus glanced at the child, then at Fate, obviously connecting the blond hair.

"I apologize further for my overly familiar attitude," he stated quickly and without any of the flamboyance of before. "I did not realize I was effectively flirting with a married woman."

"I'm not married," Fate flushed again, trying to sidestep the attention. Lindy watched as her old friend's eyes darted back and forth with calculating speed, his face a mask of puzzled thoughts. Knowing where his train of thought might go next, she decided to defuse the situation before he felt less comfortable. Unlike Clyde, Daed had always fallen apart when he misread someone.

"She's adopted," the retired admiral proclaimed. Instantly, Daedalus visibly relaxed and that smile returned.

"I see," he began. "Still, discussion of such things is not something that makes you frown the way you were a minute ago. I know you better than that. What's bothering you so badly?"

Lindy sighed, turning back to Fate, who shrugged a 'Go ahead it's not secret.'

"This case Fate's working on right now," she began. "Sektor Twenty-one stirred up trouble yesterday and got one her best friends hurt."

"Sektor Twenty-one?" Daed's eyes narrowed almost to slits. "What did those psychotic morons do this time?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," the elder Harlown grumbled. "They attacked the Selene power facility-"

"That's bold even for them," Daedalus interrupted.

"But it's just strange," Lindy continued. "They didn't destroy the plant at all. Instead, they excavated and made off with hundreds of tons of material from the foundation area around one of the cooling towers."

Daed reached up and tweaked his spectacles before speaking.

"They wanted DIRT?" he asked at length.

"Well," Lindy began. "Coal fly ash actually. The hillside around that tower was built up on it and the buried remains of a previous power plant."

"I see," he furrowed his brow in thought. "Perhaps you should explain the details to me on the way to my office. There might be something in the archeology database here on campus that might be of use."

"We already went through archeological and geological survey records for the area and turned up nothing," Fate commented. "I don't want to impose on your time for something we've already done."

"Nonsense," Daed commented, pushing his spectacles up with a finger. "Our database is separate from the TSAB's record database and contains archeological data that's three hundred years old. The Infinite Library is about the only place that might have a more complete archeological record than us, but you know how hard it is to find anything, even with Librarian Scrya running the show."

Lindy opened her mouth to object, but the professor beat her to it.

"You and I both know I'm just as stubborn as you are Lindy," he stated matter-of-factly. "That's what it took for us to deal with Clyde. Now come along, I won't take no for an answer."

Lindy closed her eyes and sighed under an exasperated smile. Stringing you along before you could get a word in edgewise. Just like old times. With a glance at Fate, who nodded with a 'might as well' look, they both got up, checking to make sure Vivio had finished her lunch.

* * *

Professor Malandra's office, from Vivio's perspective, was neat. He had a window that took up the entire far wall, and a fantastic view of the hills behind him. His desk was spotless, and was solid black, but reflected almost like a mirror. Yet, the buttons and console for his terminal seemed to be part of the very surface on which he placed the book he'd been carrying. Accustom to Mid Childan Terminals, there was nothing special about the holographic screen that appeared when he sat down in his chair and tapped the console.

Instead, the shelves that took up the entire room to his right caught the child's attention. They were organized as neatly as the ones Uncle Scrya managed in the Infinite Library. A quick glance showed them to all be various books on Ancient Belka. Some of them, Vivio swore, she could understand the title, and at the same time, realize they weren't in the Mid-Childan standard. There was even an older looking one labeled 'Sieben Krallen des Falke' on a shelf just level with her face. Wait, hawks have seven claws?

Annoying memory fragments…

Looking elsewhere to try and find something that didn't invoke confusing half-memories, she examined the opposite wall, and noticed it had a rather expensive 'Sonik-Magi Personal Stereo System' on a shelf there. The kind that pretty much consisted of the central unit, and a component that used magic to manipulate the air in the room itself. She'd seen this in a store a few weeks ago with Nanoha-mama. You could have the thing turned up full blast with a screaming rock concert wherever you wanted, and be able to hear a pin drop in the next room.

Wandering over to it, she discovered it was indeed on, though down low, providing a soft ambient music around Daed's desk. It was hard to read the display, but the woman singing kept repeating 'anywhere is…' every few lines. So that was probably the name of the song.

Other knickknacks on the shelf included a few cute dolls. No. 'Dolls' wasn't the right word. These were old, faded, and looked like some of them had been glued back together. Unfortunately, the right word to suit what they were existed in one of those holes in the Sainkt Kaiser's memory.

One thing was for certain. Vivio decided then and there that if she ever wanted to shut the stupid half-memories up, she'd have to fill in the knowledge gaps.

"So they did that much in an hour," the professor commented as he started accessing the database. "It makes me wonder how they got that much material out of the area without being seen."

"I don't know," Fate sighed. "The AMF was blocking high resolution scans, all we could get was a regular orbital camera feed."

"According to records," Daed continued. "The Selene Facility was built on top of the buried remains of the old Celcia Coal plant."

"That much we already know," Lindy commented. "What's so important about it?"

"Let me check on the old Celcia Coal plant records," Daed returned. "Ah… According to the old surveys and information database, Celcia Coal was a one thousand-megawatt facility supplying a significant portion of the Lake Celcia basin area up until the time of its destruction. It was actually a primary target and hit early on the old war, before it escalated. Old military records collected indicate it was hit with incendiaries to cause it to burn out of control. The reason was because the fuel piles were piled in close to minimize the landscape footprint. Unfortunately, once the piles caught, the fire went out of control and turned into a localized firestorm that burned for two weeks."

"They couldn't stop the fire," Lindy frowned. "That must have burned hundreds of tons of coal."

"Thousands of tons," the professor corrected. "The facility was feeding energy to a growing industrial complex, and they were preparing to expand the plant's capacity. Lake Celcia was just too convenient a water resource to bother building another plant elsewhere. They were piling up thousands of tons of excess fuel coal in preparation for the expansion."

"That still doesn't explain why Sektor 21 would want thousands of tons of ash," Fate pointed out.

"Hundreds of tons," Daedalus corrected. Fate turned to him confused.

"But you said…"

"Coal leaves about one tenth of its original mass as unburnable solid waste products," the professor explained. "So for a set amount of ash, you start with about ten times that amount in coal."

"I see," Lindy commented, lost in thought for a moment. "Perhaps what they were after wasn't the ash, but something in the ash."

Fate nodded. "Makes more sense. There's something about the coal then."

"Looking now," Daed commented. After a few seconds he continued. "The coal used at Celcia Coal was brought in by rail from the Fargo Coal Mine, four-hundred miles away."

"Anything special about it?" Fate cut in, becoming slightly excited at getting a lead.

"Hold on," Daed snapped. "The database is slow today. This thing isn't as fast as TSAB office networks. Give it a few seconds to grab the geographical information…"

There was a few more seconds before he continued.

"Fargo Coal Mine, in the Golden Hills region, exists in an area of sedimentary rock rich in phosphates… various minerals, such as Apatite. They place isn't named 'Golden Hills' for nothing. The mines around there were part of the support for the industrial complex. The rock there was rich in everything from the coal, to heavy elements."

"Heavy elements?" Lindy frowned.

"Mercury, Lead, Gold," he supplied. "Name an element with a high atomic number, it's in there, and at higher quantities than many other mining areas. Sektor twenty-one could be after anything."

Fate's excited grin started to droop.

"Anything?" she asked.

"ANYTHING." Daed emphasized.

'Thunk!' Fate's head dropped onto the desk.

"That puts us right back where we started," Lindy shook her head.

"On the contrary," the professor corrected. "There is one thing. Remember that coal leaves ten percent of its mass as unburnable waste products. Waste products that are the same stuff that was originally distributed in the coal. The ash therefore, is essentially ten times concentrate of whatever they're looking for."

"Of course!" Fate's head shot up. "The coal is already rich in whatever they're looking for, so the ash would make it easier to haul away, and it wouldn't be easy to track like attacking a facility that produced exactly what they were after."

"Clever," Lindy commented. "We know WHY they wanted the ash now. But that leaves us asking the question of WHAT did they want in the ash. Any ideas?"

Daedalus shrugged.

"I'm afraid I don't have anything beyond that. The exact contents of the minerals and other materials are not kept in the database. As they say: That's as far as this train takes you."

"How about that soil sample?" Fate chimed in. Lindy looked at her and nodded.

"I was just thinking that too," she stated. "They'll have the chemical analysis finished tomorrow."

"Perfect," Fate smirked, turning to the Professor. "Hayate's going to love this. Do you think you can give me a copy to take to her?"

"I most certainly can my dear," Daedalus nodded, pressing a few more keys. "I've always despised senseless death and destruction. If this helps you put an end to it, then I feel that its best place is in your hands."

After a second, a small data disk popped out of the surface of the console/desk, which he picked up and handed to Fate.

"Thank you," Lindy nodded with a smile. "I don't know how I could possibly make this up to you."

"Your smile is all I need," he winked, causing the elder Harlown to blush for once.

"Snake!" she snapped, turning away. "You did that on purpose!"

Daedalus laughed a short, amused laugh at his antics.

"Indeed," he continued after a moment. "But it's worth seeing the 'esteemed' Admiral Lindy Harlown turn rose pink. I heard that after Clyde's death you had gotten a bit of a cold edge to you. Glad to see that wasn't the case."

Lindy sighed, losing the red tint to her face.

"I still miss him at times," she admitted. She'd gotten over Clyde's death long before Chrono had come to peace with it by closing the whole Book of Darkness case. Still…

"I miss him too," Daed nodded solemnly. "Those boneheads that were running command were so busy arguing with each other they couldn't properly assign a safer way to transport the Book, and it got him killed being the hero. That's one reason I chose this school for my career, rather than a career listening to politicians acting at playing soldier. I hope they burn in hell."

Then he turned his eyes.

"Speaking of school, I think she might just like it here."

Following Professor Malandra's motion, both Fate and Lindy turned to look at Vivio. Now sitting amidst a couple of books she had discretely pulled off the lower shelf of the bookcase. Looking all the world like a confused child as she did her best to 'read' one of them.

Smiling, Fate got up and wandered over to the child.

"What are you reading?" she asked. "Trying to hide amusement. She couldn't even read what the page said."

"Belka Chiffrieren" she responded.

Fate blinked.

"Eh?"

"That's Belken Encoders." The Professor piped up. "It's a book on old Belken cryptology methods for barrier designs and keys. I'm surprised such a young child even knew how to say the title."

"She's very gifted," Lindy smirked.

"Can you really read what it says?" Fate asked incredulously. For a few seconds, the child continued to squint at the book. Then started to jut her lower lip out a little before looking up with a full blown tearful pout.

"Fate-mama! I know the words but they don't make any sense!"

Presented with the prospect of Vivio losing all composure and crying, Fate felt compelled to pick the child up right then and there. She'd grown sterner after the Incident with Jail, but was still a child at heart.

No doubt, thinking about the surroundings a bit now, having Vivio in a room full of Belken artifacts and books was dragging up all kinds of half memories she couldn't understand.

Seeing the rather pitiful display put on by the child, the Professor decided to help the best he could.

"If you'd like," he began, standing up. "You're welcome to take any of the books she's going through home."

The professor wandered over to the bookcase and pulled another book off the shelf. Then he turned and walked over to Vivio, currently cradled and teary eyed in Fate's arms.

"You can take that book home, and this one if you like," he began. "If you study this one too, you'll learn to understand what all those words actually mean."

Vivio sniffled unsteadily, but looked Daed right in the eye.

"Really?" She asked.

"Knowledge is Power," he quoted.

Vivio's face lit up in what Lindy could only describe as an alarmingly bright smile as she took the book.

Vivio finally made another connection with Nanoha-mama. Vegetables made you strong, but knowledge gave you power. If studying gives you knowledge, and knowledge gives you power, then studying gives you power!

Seeing the look, Fate turned to Lindy and nodded. The retired admiral returned the nod with a smile. This school would definitely be on the top of the list to have Nanoha review.

Making their way to the door while the child was distracted, Lindy nodded politely at her own friend. Then they pulled it open.

"Oh…"

Standing there was General Roland, his fist raised to knock.

"Sir…" Fate noted in surprise.

"Black Knight!" Vivio beamed.

"General Roland," Lindy responded in equal surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you Admiral," he smiled, lowering his arm, then sighed. "I've been up and down, back and forth, and side to side all over Cranagan for the last four hours trying to find someone with the authority to sign off on some paperwork I promised. Instead, I've been redirected all over the city just to find someone who knows Riot Force Six even Exists."

"Oh dear," Lindy muttered, knowing what was coming. "Bureau Shock."

"I went to central logistics first, but they tell me they're not authorized to deal with anyone outside their direct chain of command, and directed me to division headquarters, who told me they can't make that decision and directed me to main HQ… Who in turn said I'm more than authorized to do it, which sent me back to central logistics… Who again responded that I need proper chain of command for RF6, who directed me to the Auxiliary Units Office, which in turn pointed me to the Offices of the Beneficiaries, who don't even know of the unit, and sent me to Main HQ again… Who in turn, finally just said 'Ask Admiral Harlown.' So I went back to RF6 and asked Lt. Col. Yagami, and she said to go ask Librarian Scrya at the Infinite Library, since he'd know where you were."

"Bureau Shock," Fate nodded.

"All this for some cartridges and a limiter authorization?" The general continued. "God, now I remember why I stay on McGreggor. I've had less trouble with East Asian Telemarketers. How do you manage to keep sane?"

Lindy laughed.

"I don't manage," she commented. "I cheat. I send someone else for signatures. And if that doesn't work, I show up myself and threaten their job. It's easy once you know how to do it right."

"Typical," Roland grumbled. "The more things are different, the more they're the same…"

Lindy couldn't help but hide a smile. Roland had been around the TSAB for a while, but somehow, while he was under the eternal scrutiny of Gias Regius, he'd never been through what long time veterans of TSAB internal affairs like to call 'Bureau Shock'. After hours of going back and forth all over trying to get the simplest task done, only to be blocked and redirected at every turn due to some lame technicality, the person doing the running eventually snaps. Those who didn't find a way to deal with Bureau Shock eventually just gave up, allowing themselves to fade into the role of whatever position they held just to avoid the stress of trying to make a difference.

Often the case of higher ups in the TSAB are those who learned to manage or counter Bureau Shock. Others got into position on raw magical skill or power. And yet others managed it through 'cheating' and brown nosing.

Lindy admitted to herself, she was quite guilty of formidable skill in the less than savory art of playing the system. There was no denying the fact that she managed to have direct supervision of her own son as a subordinate on her own cruiser. There was also no denying that her son was now one of the supervisors overseeing Riot Force Six, and her adopted daughter Fate. Fate in turn supervising the children she'd taken in to care for before that. In fact, thinking about it, Riot Force Six was one big happy 'family'. A brazen display of Nepotism that, if everyone there hadn't been so GOOD at their jobs, probably would have seen all kinds of hell for it. It reminded her of this motivational poster she'd seen in a shop one time.

'Nepotism: We promote family values here. Almost as much as we promote family members.'

It was a strange poster in that it seemed explicitly designed to do the opposite of what that type of poster was supposed to do.

"Beware TSAB Red Tape," Daedalus laughed. "It'll tie you up and strangle you like a Valdian Sand Constrictor."

"They don't like lightning magic though," Fate chimed in, having killed a huge one to 'save' Signum ten years ago.

"If it's one thing that definitely needs to be changed in the TSAB," Roland continued, ignoring the extra commentary. "It would be that they need to be reorganized and structured with a more direct chain of command."

"Don't waste your time," Daedalus rolled his eyes.

Roland looked at the professor and seemed to remember he hadn't met him before.

"Sorry," he continued. "Major General William Roland. Bureau Experimental Systems Test Force, former United States Army Ranger and tank commander. And you are?"

"Professor Daedalus Malandra," Daed returned. "Director of Belken Studies for St. Hilde's Academy. This place."

Roland nodded.

"So why am I wasting my time?" he continued, formalities out of the way.

"Simple," Daedalus shrugged. "A political entity as horribly complicated and internally corrupted as the TSAB is inherently too complex for any change to occur on the individual efforts of a person attempting to work within the system. There are too many entities within the system who would actively work against any such efforts. As a result, attempts to make changes to the system which endanger the positions of said entities would be rejected, or subjected to more red tape, effectively stalling any change until the person trying to evoke it gives up."

"So you're saying that trying the change the TSAB is useless?" Roland asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Merely that trying to evoke change from within the system itself is a neigh futile task and a horribly inefficient process," the professor corrected. "As complicated as the TSAB is, the only real way to get solid change would be to completely remove the current leaders and their supporters from power."

"I've seen regime toppling happen before," Roland shook his head. "If you think it were that easy, I've got news for you. It's not. If you remove the entirety of an experienced, stable government from power, what you end up with is a mess, and a political power vacuum that gets filled up by the first person capable of saying what the public wants to hear. I know the TSAB can be incompetent at times, that we seem to agree on, but you've never heard of this little hell hole back home that is Somalia. If you're not careful, you make a bigger problem in trying to take the easy way out."

"But changing the system from within doesn't get anything done and provides no more solution to the problem," Daedalus countered.

"You can still work the change by playing the desires of powerful supporters to further your ends," Roland returned. "I've seen it work at home. It causes political noise, but it works."

"That's only a temporary solution and merely appeases those in power so long as it continues to benefit them," Daedalus argued. "As soon as something is no longer convenient for them, they use their considerable clout to remove the issue and return everything to status quo. History has shown that such a method is highly ineffective in the long run, and short-term solutions don't fix long term problems of this nature. The fall of Belka began under such precedence that resulted from attempts to subvert and mask change to the government."

"You have to learn to be flexible," Roland returned. He hated political arguments, it was too easy to get inflamed over minor disagreements. "If you cannot roll with the punches, you should avoid such a game. Winning it doesn't occur without sacrifice, and risk tends to equal reward in this kind of situation. Sometimes you have to be willing to beat these guys at their own game. Removing them from power removes too much experience and knowledge of the system they were a part of, a system that is a part of the very culture. Remove them, and you could end up with something worse than a broken country like Somalia."

"But you should beware such an approach to that kind of problem," a new voice stated. It was so sudden, and so close, Roland visibly jumped and turned around.

The young lady that had spoken smiled softly, looking slightly distant as she did so.

"There's a saying," she began, looking directly at the General. "Beware fighting demons, lest you become a demon yourself."

The general was struck dumb for a few seconds at the simple truth of that statement. But also, something about the way her distant gaze was looking at him… No THROUGH him, made his skin crawl.

"Wise words spoken by many," he managed at length. At which point she smiled disarmingly, framed by silvery blue hair, then looked past him.

"Professor," she began in a seemingly harmless tone. "The dean wants an update on your course study ready by five."

"Thank you Megumi," Daedalus replied. "I'll have it ready by four."

Megumi smiled again then looked to Vivio.

"Salus," she smiled.

"Salus," Vivio responded, then blinked in confusion.

With that, the girl turned away and walked, or seemingly wandered back up the hall.

After a few seconds, Lindy spoke up, having noticed how weird Roland was behaving.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Something…" Roland began, then looked at the Professor. "Who is she?"

"Just a temp," Daedalus replied with a shrug. "We have tons of them. Why?"

"Just this feeling," Roland answered. "Like in a moment, she could have killed us all without any effort and think of it as nothing more than practice."

"Absurd," Daed scoffed.

"No," Roland shook his head. "I've been a soldier too long. My body knows when it's in danger. And every instinct I have was screaming that we were in more danger than anything I had ever encountered in a war zone."

"Probably because she startled you," the professor supplied.

Roland squinted. This wasn't the feeling of being startled. He knew the difference. But there was one more thing… What she said to Vivio. It didn't sound like the German-like Belken, more like…

"How does Vivio know Latin?" he asked.

Everyone blinked at once.

"What's Latin?" Daed asked. Roland froze. If the professor didn't know what Latin was, and if Mid Childans didn't know about Latin at all…

The sound of a private telecommunications line beeping made everyone jump.

Daed wandered over and picked the phone-like reciever up and spoke.

"Malandra…" he paused. "Yes, he's here. Yes ma'am."

Turning, Daedalus looked at Roland.

"It's for you. It's urgent."

Roland briskly entered and crossed the room.

"Major General William Roland," he stated officially, taking the 'phone' from Daed. "Yes… Uhuh."

And then his eyes narrowed to slits.

"Say again?"

After a pause, he finished.

"On my way."

Handing the device back to the Professor, he looked at Lindy and Fate, then shook his head.

"You think you could take care of a little request for me?" he asked.

Lindy smiled the best she could.

"The cartridges and limiter stuff you were talking about?"

"Yeah," he nodded, fishing a small envelope out of a pocket. "You know who to accost to get this stuff pushed through. My signatures are on them, just stuff it down the throats of whoever needs it stuffed down."

He paused, looking at a curious Vivio calmly staring back. And an equally curious look on Fate's face too.

"Take them with you as well," he began. "What's about to happen is best left unseen."

Lindy gave him a puzzled look.

"Why?" She asked, then she recognized the look, as only a superior officer could do. "Wait, are you…"

"I have to go crack some skulls," Roland replied with a scowl, and stalked out of the office.


	10. Chapter 10: Fallout

'Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…'

**8:36 PM (16:36 hours)**

**Cranagan City**

**West Coast Base Area**

**Riot Force Six Headquarters**

'Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…'

That sound…

'Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…'

What is it about that sound?

'Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…'

There's just something about it that's so…

'Beep…'

Consistent?

'Beep…'

Repetitive?

'Beep…'

Monotonous?

'Beep…'

ANNOYING.

'Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…'

Anyone care to shut that thing up?

"Ne! Ne! Tia! Get a load of this… It says, 'The Enemy invariably attacks on two occasions. A, when they're ready. B, when you're not.' Hilarious right?"

Drowning it out works too…

"No kidding. Tell me if this seems familiar to you… 'Professionals are predictable. It's the amateurs who are dangerous.' Sound like somebody?"

"You only got blasted by Nanoha twice for something like that… Hey! Speaking of… 'When you've secured the area, don't forget to tell the enemy.' Nanoha learned that the hard way remember?"

"So did we… This morning."

"Yeah, surprise-surprise…"

This was an interesting conversation…

"I can't believe this stuff is in a special operations manual. This entire list is like the most idiotic little reminders of common sense I've ever seen. I mean, listen to this one. 'Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.' What do enforcers need this kind of information for?"

Maybe because if someone like Nanoha fell victim to that one from a while before…

"You should see the section on tactical movement strategies Tia. It has everything the general yelled at us about this morning during practice."

Practice? What…

"If he considers this content nothing more than basic training routines, how sad do you think that really looked this morning?"

Where?

"Or more importantly, if the TSAB as a whole considers this information to be of a Special Operations level, just what does he know that we don't?"

Special Operations? Enforcers? The Enforcer Special Operations Field Manual number six dash seven! The general was talking about that practice fight with…

What happened? What time was it? Why was he on his back?

Mind, check. Feeling of sheets, check. Wiggle your big toe?

"Hey, he's moving. Maybe he's dreaming about someone tickling his feet…"

Check.

"Get your face back! We don't need a repeat of this morning."

The darkness parted and fled to the corners of his sight as light flooded Crash's vision. The ceiling greeted him as he did so. He recognized the style immediately. A TSAB Infirmary. The incessant beeping of the Electrocardiograph reinforced the conclusion.

Why was he in an infirmary? Well, actually, given the kinds of things that liked to happen around him, the question would rather be why WOULDN'T he be there?

"I said get your face back!"

"I think he's awake… Hey! He is!"

"Then leave him alone a bit while I call Shamal."

Crash realized just how out of focus the world was when the blue and tan colored blur stuck itself into his line of sight. Blinking several times, he managed to bring the image into focus. A blue haired girl was grinning wildly down at him.

"Rise and shine," she singsonged mischievously. "You owe me an ice cream after what you put us through."

"Subaru!"

The name clicked in Crash's mind, and the events of the morning replayed. The general had surprised him by leaving him with Nanoha to practice. He fought the RF6 forwards, a group of Nanoha's trainees that included the girl leaning over him. Things had gotten pretty hectic and he was trying to buy some breathing room when… When…

"Oh," he grumbled, sitting up. "Never even saw it coming…"

"How are you feeling?" Tiana asked, yanking her partner back. Crash looked over at the brown haired girl before taking a deep breath and rubbing his temple.

"Aside from a splitting headache…" he paused. "Not bad actually. Very loose in fact… What time is it?"

"Nine PM," Subaru supplied. Crashed winced.

"Damn," he grumbled. "Twelve hours. No wonder I feel good. I've been out all day."

"Out nothing," Tia responded. "We thought you were going to end up in a coma after what happened."

Crash suppressed a small chuckle. Vita really did hammer him hard.

"I take it I lost pretty bad then…"

Tia seemed to tilt her head, before looking at Subaru, who shared an equally confused look.

"Are you kidding?" The center asked him. "You won. You about tore everyone apart in the process."

"What are you talking about?" Crash countered. The last thing that went through his mind was Graf Eisen. Almost Literally.

Both girls shared another look.

"You don't remember?" Subaru asked at length.

"I remember trying to jump away, and then… a loud bang, and concrete," Crash responded. "I guess that's around the point Vita managed to give me a concussion. Thank god for helmets."

"You really don't remember what happened after that do you?" Tia asked. Crash fixed her with a perplexed stare.

"After a 'Count Iron' induced concussion," Crash began. "I'm surprised I can remember my own name… Since it well, put me out for twelve hours."

"That didn't put you out at all," Subaru responded. "I would know. I was there when you put me through an office building a few seconds later."

"An office building?" Crash asked. That must have been-Wait, THROUGH?! WHAT THE-

"No…" he smiled. "You're pulling my leg… Trying to make me feel better after that defeat. There's no way I have the peak output to utilize that level of physical attack, even with armor augmentation."

"It's true!" Subaru pleaded. "Everything was caught on the monitors!"

As she said that, she brought up a local terminal and connected to the file in question. After about thirty seconds of hunting, she opened a display screen. Crash stared in disbelief, then in shock as he watched, HIMSELF, not only punch so hard it put the cyborg girl into a ballistic arc, but follow up with the most absurd chain combination attack he'd 'never' have come up with. One that included putting her through a building and hitting her immediately with a high power attack.

"No no no!" he snapped in denial. "That's physically impossible! I'm a C rank power with a Peak Output Tolerance of high B rank. That attack combination would require at least a triple A level sustained surge. Where'd I manage to draw that power from?"

"Cartridges," Tia said evenly. "In those few seconds alone, you went through nine of them."

"NINE?" Crash's mouth was hanging open. "That's suicide, even for an A Rank! How long did this go on? How many cartridges did I end up using?"

"Thirty-three," a new voice interrupted before Subaru could open her mouth. They all turned to see Shamal at the entrance with a rather bloodshot-eyed Shari shadowing her. Both had a serious look on their face as she continued. "In five minutes."

Crash blanked. Thirty-three? In how long? Five minutes? That wasn't unbelievable, that was absurd.

"That much energy forced into a body not conditioned to handle it is insane," Crash noted. "By all rights, using thirty-three cartridges would have killed an SS rank mage. It should have killed me."

"It almost did," Shamal nodded, leaning over to shine a light in his eyes. "The concussion Vita gave you on accident didn't help, but the backlash when you came down from your boosted state came very close to causing a cardiac arrest. Hypermana-shock. But that's just part of it... Magic also produces excess waste heat, especially when excessive amounts are channeled through low rank mages. By all rights, you should have been cooked in your own fluids."

"So why wasn't I boiled alive?" Crash responded while the doctor stood back and went to put her examination light to the side.

"Because of this," Shari responded, tossing a small metal object similar to a soda can at him. Crash caught it, and gave it a bit of an examination. The cylinder showed blatantly obvious signs of thermal damage. It was made of metal, but it was burned and melted so badly he couldn't even figure out what it had been.

"What this?" He asked. Shamal placed a stethoscope to his chest as Shari explained.

"That is, or rather was, a medium, laboratory scale Self Governing Focal Core. Now it's just five pounds of slag. I pulled that from your suit after they stripped it off you. You know what it does. It's essentially the equipment version of a Linker Core, but less efficient. It was burned up and almost fused into its module socket, and the two heat sink circulators that supported it were MELTED. I went through your device's performance data. Turns out that the whole system was still operating in test mode, which operates under elevated safety guidelines and has self-preservation limiters removed. Essentially, Battery went into Emergency Mode and ran the focal core at over three hundred percent output to take the load off your own linker core. Given another two minutes, it would have melted too, and then the armor around it."

"At which point we'd be peeling you out of it with a scalpel…" Shamal noted, holding one of Crash's' arms up and taking his pulse. "You are VERY lucky you didn't end up much worse…"

"Yeah," Crash nodded quietly. "Lucky. My kind of lucky more than likely…"

He turned the melted focal core over in his hand. This was what powered the Olympian Armor, and allowed him to get the boosted power systems. Battery had pretty much burned the suit out to save his life. Battery? BATTERY!

"What about Battery?" he shot back. "Is he-"

"Good news there," Shari smirked, pulling a pair of dog tags out of her pocket. "It was pretty easy to repair the damage and restore him to full capacity."

She tossed them to Crash, who quickly dropped the former magic core and caught them with a sigh of relief.

"I wish other devices were this modular," she continued. "Other than having to break the parts free where they'd partially melted to the socket, I had almost no problems replacing the damaged components."

"That's good to hear," Crash smiled. "How you doing Battery?"

[PRIMED. ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL AT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT]

Crash chuckled. Leave it to this device to make any comment at full force.

"Now," Shari held up a hand. "I didn't have the exact parts that were used in your equipment. It was all laboratory-grade. That stuff tends to be old surplus gear. Your core was a ten-year-old S3U module. I couldn't find anything that matched in inventory, so I had to find a part that fit by hand. It ended up being a type sixteen reinforced assault core. Just like what Raising Heart uses now."

"Doesn't that require a high pressure freon circulator and steam purge heat exchangar to cool?" Crash asked.

Shari nodded as Shamal stood back brought up a scanning terminal.

"At maximum power, yes. But maximum power for this thing is like the three hundred percent output for your old core. You won't be running very hot. But just in case, I made sure the replacement heat circulators had at least a steam purge mechanism. Your armor has more space for a heat sink than Raising Heart, and the armor itself can be used to dump waste heat in a pinch. You'll have a much better margin for error if anything like this morning ever happens again."

"What exactly DID happen?" Crash asked. "I don't move like that, no way no how."

"Aggravated Traumatic Flashback," Shamal replied. "The exact triggers are hard to figure out, but the symptoms are obvious. I'm not sure exactly what did it in this case, because you had been exposed to all the associated stimuli previously with no ill effects. It might have been simply that it required a combination of stimuli, or perhaps the concussion you received made you more susceptible to it. Regardless, whatever the exact trigger, the results were obvious. An immediate and aggressive defense response."

"What?" Crash asked.

"You went berserk," Tia supplied. "You not only punched Subaru through a building, you turned into a seven foot tall armored killing machine hell bent on her destruction. It took nine of us just to draw even with you. And even then we couldn't stop you. The only thing that seemed to make you stop was when you finally shot Nanoha-"

"I WHAT?" Crash gaped.

"Remember we said you WON?" Subaru asked. "We all tackled you at once. And somehow you managed to aim, fire, and HIT Nanoha with a shot powerful enough to leave a rather nasty burn at over a hundred meters."

"How could I possibly manage something like that?" Crash asked, turning to throw his feet off the bed and put his face in his hands. "I could barely think fast enough to keep up with two of you at once. Let alone nine."

"When one goes into a berserk state," Shamal advised. "The mind falls back on deeply engrained behavioral patterns and reflex memory. The body remembers what it was taught."

"But I wasn't TAUGHT combat!" Crash snapped. "That's what I've been trying to tell you! What I've been trying to tell EVERYONE. I'm a TEST PILOT. I do on the fly statistical analysis and behavioral prediction with a side of 'Dodge the Random Malfunctioning Machine'… For god's sake, I just break stuff!"

"That's what combat is," Shamal stated pointedly. "That is EXACTLY, what combat is. Everything you just described, the exact same thing."

The pilot and the doctor stared at each other for several seconds before she finished.

"People, breaking things, and each other."

They continued to stare, before finally, the pilot started to shake his head again.

"No…" He began. "No. It's not that simple. It's never that simple."

He pushed off the bed and grabbed the uniform jacket that had been laying on the stand.

"What are you doing?" Shamal asked.

"I need to think," Crash grumbled, quickly throwing the jacket on.

"It's not a good idea for you to be up and about after an episode like that," Shamal advised. "The long term effects may be more sever-"

"Try and stop me," Crash snapped, making for the door. Before he could get there however, Subaru managed to slip in front of him and block the way out.

"You should listen to the doctor," she advised. "It's for your own good."

Crash frowned, truly frowned, and leaned down and into the Cyborg's face.

"Move," he all but breathed, looking her straight in the eyes.

Subaru remained steadfast, looking past him to Tia for any ideas, but found her friend almost franticly trying to wave her off silently. Sighing, she stepped aside.

"Thank you," and with that, Crash was gone.

After a few seconds, Tia practically jumped across the room to slap her upside the back of the head.

"Idiot!" she growled. "Getting in his face like that. Do you have a learning disability? What if you set him off again? Do you have any idea what kind of damage he could do in here?"

Shamal shook her head, but looked at the two girls arguing, then turned to Shari.

"Did you see what I saw?" she asked.

"I saw a cute guy with poor self confidence," the tech responded. "I still can't believe he took out half my lab just by touching a light switch. What did you see?"

"Well when-" Shamal began, but was interrupted by a cavernous yawn from her associate. Of course, Shari had been up for twenty-four hours. Running on stimulants would only work for so long.

"Nothing," she smiled. "Go get some sleep."

"I've still got a component function test to do on that AMF pod," Shari responded. "I can't sleep yet."

"Doctor's orders," Shamal quipped.

"Fine," Shari shrugged. "I guess you're right… Maybe I'll figure something out after I sleep on it. Goodnight."

* * *

Hayate's room, two floors up, and half way across the building, was an entirely different mood. Lynn and Nanoha stood on either side of her bed, while General Roland stared at one of half a dozen screens showing various viewpoints of the replay of the early morning exercise. The tension was so thick you could probably can the stuff and sell it to a rubber band factory.

Truth-be-told, it was all Nanoha could do not to fidget in place despite being there for seven hours.

When the general received that little call informing him of what happened, it took him about an hour to get back to Riot Force Six Headquarters. Nanoha had been prepared for almost any response. She could handle screaming and yelling. She would have no problems with the creative number of ways the general would call her stupid or irresponsible. After all, it was her mistake, and she knew it.

What she hadn't been prepared for, was this.

When Roland arrived, everyone instinctively knew to clear out of his way. He spoke very little, but his posture screamed silently. First, he checked on Crash in the infirmary, then he'd turned to the two of them and had spoken some of the few words he'd uttered all afternoon.

"You two. Commander's Quarters… Now."

Nanoha knew how to handle just about any situation, save for the one she found herself experiencing. With most people, their anger was worn on their sleeve. They were easy to read. It was easy to think and react to the situation. Roland, she realized at that moment, was the Quiet Type. The Quiet Type were very BAD. She would know, she was one of them. And she'd never really considered the possibility of having to answer to… well, herself. So in this situation, knowing how she would be reacting made her sweat run cold.

Hayate wondered what was going on when the two captains had shown up in her room, followed by a frighteningly calm General a moment later. However, when she'd started to ask about it, the general had cut her off. 'Shut up Yagami', of course, was not the most polite way to respond, but it got the point across.

He followed up with a rapid-fire series of orders to the two captains, starting with setting up the half dozen monitoring screens, and then accessing the multitude of monitoring records from the early morning exercise. Then he began watching the entire training exercise. Nanoha and Lynn found themselves instructed to stand at attention.

If one has ever stood at attention for any length of time, one knew this could become uncomfortable after ten to fifteen minutes. This by extension, was borderline torture, because they stood there unmoving for the next seven hours.

Roland watched the training session over and over again, reviewing dialogue, angles, examining events, and generally going over the entire thing with a fine-tooth comb. After a while, he began to ask Hayate questions about certain things that were occurring, asking power descriptions, and beginning a running commentary with her. It almost seemed as if the two captains had found themselves forgotten.

But Nanoha had this sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach this was going to get worse before it got better. Of the things she noted. During the entire seven hours, Roland never once relaxed his posture. Opting instead to stand, arms crossed, at the foot of Hayate's bed.

Finally, her legs numbed up long ago, she almost gave a start when, in the middle of probably the eighteenth time she'd watched herself get shot in the back, the General suddenly paused playback and turned around, eyeing them both.

"Front and center," he snapped.

Relieved to be allowed the luxury of moving, if only for a moment, both captains quickly followed the instructions, coming to a rest, once again at attention side-by-side next to the general. Of course, now directly under the gaze of the commander, any relief they felt physically was certainly replaced by the spike in anxiety as he eyed the two.

"What happened?"

That was a question that, after witnessing the way it was used before, was obviously rhetorical. He wasn't asking what had happened. He had seven hours to determine that, and he had his conclusions already. What he was really asking was: 'What were you thinking at the time?'

However, answering that effectively often felt to a person like confessing to murder. One wanted to phrase it in the least harmful way, but at the same time, there literally was no least harmful way to confess to murder. And for Nanoha, who'd never willfully kill a person, this was not an easy question to formulate a response to.

"I'll start then," he continued, turning to the monitor.

"This, was the biggest, most absurd CLUSTERFUCK I've seen in twenty years."

Nanoha suppressed a wince as he elevated his voice to emphasize… That word.

"Yet words don't even BEGIN to describe the screw up here," Roland continued. "So it's no surprise you don't have a proper answer to give me. There really is no proper answer to give me to start with."

Hayate wanted to say something from her spot in bed, but knew better than to speak.

"However," he whirled on them again. "Given exactly what happened, we're going to try anyway. Takamachi, I expect after watching this for seven hours, you've spent at least some of the time actually thinking about what happened here?"

Crap! Read like an open book.

"So I expect you finally noticed your mistakes," he continued. "I count four, I only expect you to spot three."

Nanoha blinked.

"Sir," she began, then paused. Four mistakes? Why did this have to be so hard?

"Just tell what you know," he nodded.

"I failed to recognize the seriousness of Vita's panic, and was too engrossed in my own scenario to safely manage my exercise."

"One," Roland nodded.

"I… failed to adhere to proper safety protocols regarding large group training sessions," Nanoha continued.

"Regulation Alpha-Alpha Twenty Charlie," Roland nodded. "Any exercise that contains ten or more participants is to be deemed hazardous by default regardless of activity. Which invokes a plethora of other safety regulations. Regulations which, were thus violated by extension of the violation of Alpha-Alpha Twenty Charlie. Which brings us to mistake three, one that could have prevented such violations."

Nanoha blinked. What did she do wrong? Was she a little careless? Well, more people showed up than she'd expect, but still…

"Okay, you're human," Roland shook his head. "So I'll throw you a bone. Bardou!"

"Yes Sir!" the other captain snapped.

"What was your first mistake, and in turn, a mistake Takamachi reciprocated. I KNOW you know."

Lynn sighed, but answered.

"I mistakenly allowed myself and my team to join the exercise without expressing the number or type of participants involved, and failed to take into account the response of others in the area," she stated, never taking her eyes off a spot on the wall.

"Correct," Roland snapped, turning back to Nanoha. "You failed to clarify with her who, and how many. Which leads directly to the fourth mistake. Complacency."

"This is the other mistake you both made," he commented more loudly, addressing them both. "Takamachi, you made the assumption that everything was going as normal, and that when Bardou requested entry into the scenario, you assumed that she was the only one. Likewise Bardou, you assumed that Takamachi's scenario would remain static without her direct instruction. You each made a combined assumption that the other knew what she was doing, and made no efforts to double check."

Roland began to pace back and forth as he continued, his voice climbing as he did so.

"Because you two were so complacent in your assumptions about what was going on, you both neglected to be one-hundred percent sure about the situation and how things may evolve beyond your control, as is prone to occur in these situations. In short, your complacency caused you to bungle your jobs! The result of your combined complacent bungling caused the biggest obnoxious snowball of a situation that ended in a god damned CLUSTERFUCK THAT ALMOST GOT, MY PERSONNEL, KILLED!"

Roland emphasized 'killed' by slamming his fist on the corner of Hayate's bed, making a loud crack noise as it did so. Nanoha tried her best to contain her nervousness. He seemed to be taking great care to work slowly up to the screaming rage she had initially expected. A method of which was really good at cracking even the best composure.

"Takamachi, I KNOW you know better than that!" he continued. "You almost got killed yourself because of complacency, so I figured you would know not to drop your guard even under controlled circumstances. But I guess even the best of us need a little nip in the ass every once in a while to remind them they aren't fucking perfect."

"Sir," Lynn began. "I will accept full responsibility for this situation. If I hadn't brought my team to participate in the exercise, it would have remained well under Takamachi's control."

"Wrong answer Bardou," Roland shook his head. "It takes two to tango, and Takamachi dropped the ball just as badly as you did. There are no excuses to compensate for the complete breakdown of the situation or the failure to communicate. Mistakes were made on a fundamental level that caused further mistakes to occur with rapidly increasing frequency. This is unacceptable and must be corrected. Right now."

"Sir?" Hayate inquired from her spot. "If I may…"

Roland regarded the Lieutenant Colonel with a curious eye, but found her serious face betraying a valid contribution instead of any sympathies for her friends-come-subordinates.

"Go ahead Yagami," he nodded.

"I'd like to point out that there may in fact be a fifth mistake you either didn't notice, or neglected to mention in this scenario," she began. "One that really could not have been expected."

The general turned fully to Hayate.

"You have my attention," he nodded.

"Crash's abilities," Hayate motioned at the paused screen. "Even if you could predict the likely outcome from psychological experience, there was no way for anyone to expect, or even contemplate his abilities to be of this magnitude."

Pausing to see if there were any counters, but seeing none, she continued.

"By all rights, he's just a physically augmented C rank mage. Historically, there should be no way that a mage of his grade could possibly be anywhere near capable of the feats he pulled off. That being taken into account in the scenario that occurred here, by all rights should be impossible. Even with an intentional failure to adhere to safety protocols…

There was no evidence to suggest that he would become increasingly hostile if he snapped. Rather the contrary... And there was even less to suggest that if he became hostile, that he would be able to perform to a level to match nearly a dozen mages ranging from B rank to triple A rank. By every right, if he had gone crazy like he did, its perfectly understandable that Vita, plus the forwards, plus anyone else SHOULD have been able to quite easily suppress him."

Roland nodded in understanding. Hayate indeed had an investigator's mind.

"In short, his abilities were vastly underestimated," she finished.

"So I saw," the general commented. "However that does not dismiss the fact that there were several blatant critical safety errors out there this morning. Errors that by every right, should not occur. Errors that, no matter how you look at them, should have these two captains standing before review board for gross negligence and endangerment of Bureau personnel. An act which frankly, can destroy a career faster than you can say FLASH MOVE."

Nanoha gulped.

"However," Roland continued after letting that sink in for a moment. "There are a number of things here working in our favor. The first, being that the mages in question have wonderful records outside of this incident. The second is that despite what happened, nobody actually died today as a result of these actions. Despite coming very VERY close."

He paused again.

"Thirdly, since this was also a very unique scenario, it can be said that a lot of things occurred that nobody could have predicted. Given what we've seen, even if every safety protocol was followed perfectly, this might still have turned into a nightmare scenario beyond our control. As a result, I have decided to take the following administrative action."

The way he went flat in his tone for the last line made the room drop to icy cold.

"This entire fiasco never happened. These records will be erased from the primary database, and you will give me the backup on disk. I will be filing a report on holes in safety protocol under the excuse that I might have seen possible causes for severe injury or trauma from some training routines I witnessed."

The room was silent. For a few seconds, the three women each thought they heard the general just suggest something that was less than morally acceptable TSAB behavior.

"Wait," Hayate began. "Can you do that?"

"I most certainly can," Roland nodded. "Its called 'I'm a general, bite me' authority."

"You can't be serious!" She continued. "You can't just snap your fingers and 'POOF!' Regius couldn't even do that and he had more pull than you."

General Roland smirked, the first smile they'd seen out of him all evening.

"You'll discover that I'm not Regius, and for all his political skills, he didn't know crap about milking the loopholes of a bureaucratic system, or he wouldn't have been stuck in the hole he was in. I may get lost trying to get simple paperwork done, but never underestimate the power of technicalities."

"What technicalities?" Hayate asked at length. "This should, by procedure, be on its way up the line for critical oversight review immediately. To do otherwise is a violation of those procedures, and illegal."

"The technicality," Roland began. "That the Olympian Powered Armor Exoskeleton, is a classified prototype. And that any information involving said prototype, its activities, or its capabilities, may only be distributed at my discretion, and/or a need-to-know basis, only to people who have acceptable clearance levels."

Hayate's mouth worked in confused motions, trying to formulate a response. Roland turned and motioned at the monitor screens before she could settle on one.

"And that," he waved, "most certainly qualifies as information about the prototype, its activities, and capabilities. Would you not agree?"

Silence, for several long seconds. Then Hayate snorted, but suppressed a laugh since her chest was still sore. He had that excuse ready from the start. He had it planned out quite coldly. Anything he did, as long as Crash brought that armor along and put it into action, could be legally withheld from anything … Short of major criminal investigations by TSAB Internal Affairs. And knowing the system would tie anyone looking to pry up for months. Just attempting to get the clearance would give the general ample time to prepare legally.

"How do you manage to pull off being so… so," she began

"Two faced?" Roland completed her question. "Practice Yagami… As only worming your way up a bureaucracy while a hard ass keeps you under a microscope can give. Lots and lots of practice. I don't need a bunch of books to tell me how to dictate right and wrong. Neither do you. Half the laws in place are oversight-oriented ass-covering policies… Besides."

He turned to Nanoha and Lynn.

"I think making them stand at attention for seven hours while they contemplated their Fate was plenty of punishment for their offenses. As I learned long ago. Stupid punishments for stupid mistakes are real good at canceling out the stupidity."

Nanoha blinked as her mouth dropped open.

"You mean," she began. "You… You had me standing like that AS my punishment the whole time?!"

"Works quite well doesn't it?" Roland asked. "Made you go 'Oh no! He's angry, what is going to happen to me? I did something bad…' didn't it? My old drill sergeant once said: 'You can be stupid, and I can be stupid. But If I'm going to be stupid, I'm going to WIN.' And that always stuck with me."

Nanoha had to admit. It did work. She hadn't been this worried about her own future since way back in grade school… As she started to laugh unsteadily at the revelation that she'd been on the receiving end of direct psychological warfare, there was a beep at the door.

"Enter," Roland instructed. A moment later, Shamal stepped into the room.

"How's he doing?" Roland asked.

"Up and about," the doctor nodded with a slightly annoyed look. "Though he really shouldn't be."

"Wow, that was fast." He continued. "I knew the boy was made of sterner stuff, but to be up this quickly…"

"I did a quick routine examination," Shamal explained. "And despite having experienced a very severe Post-Hypermana Shock, he's in wonderful condition. His device did such a good job of safeguarding his life, that his linker core barely suffered any direct strain, and was actually strengthened as a result."

"What does not kill you makes you stronger," the general laughed.

"I wish that proved true more often," Shamal shook her head. "I wouldn't suggest something like that the first time around, let alone a second time. If even one thing had gone differently… His suit not working to save his life, or the components failing sooner, he'd be in a casket right now. It will be days before I'll be able to make any long term assessments on his condition, if he has one."

"We don't intend to have a repeat of this incident," Roland nodded. "It's not exactly a scenario one sets off intentionally. Most people don't like having a berserker on the loose. Which brings me to a question. What was your evaluation of his mental state?"

"He was certainly within the acceptable limits for someone who almost died," Shamal stated. "He didn't take learning how much damage he did too well. Perfectly plausible denial given the conditions he's been in lately. I suspect he needs some time to be alone and come to terms with the fact, but otherwise he didn't seem too bad."

Roland nodded.

"The only thing that really got me," Shamal noted after a moment. "Was the way he reacted to Subaru."

"Still paranoid of her," Roland shook his head. "Don't' worry that's-"

"No sir," Shamal interrupted, causing the general to blink.

"What?"

"I heard about the reaction he'd been having from Shari and the others. It strikes me as major Symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The one his records show he was diagnosed negative. Though the evidence suggests otherwise, but I'll rant about that later." She partially glared for her last sentence.

"The thing that gets me here was the complete lack of a reaction when she got right in his face."

"He DIDN'T react to her?" Roland asked. "You sure?"

"Unless he learned to hide it really well," Shamal shook her head. "He was ready to initiate confrontation with her."

"That's definitely not what he would have done before," Roland frowned. "Again, are you ABSOLUTELY sure about what you saw?"

"Sir, he leaned down into her face and GROWLED at her to move. If she hadn't, I'm pretty certain he would have moved her, by force. He wasn't afraid. Period."

Roland placed his hand on his chin. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. Crash was turning into a conundrum. One minute he was a frightened kitten, the next he was a cornered lion. He'd been afraid of her before now… It had actually been his fear of her that had resulted in his little rampage. Now he didn't- wait, back up.

"Doctor," the general began. "Is it possible to that if someone is no longer threatened by the object of their fear, they'd stop fearing it?"

"It's theorized," Shamal stated. "One documented method for treating post traumatic stress disorder is through exposure therapy. And most therapy methods involve a form of mental confrontation with the express purpose of rationalizing, downplaying, and dismissing the threat until the person no longer reacts to it."

"What would you call… Aggressively attacking the threat and beating the crap out of it until you were informed that you were victorious?" Roland asked.

"What?"

The general turned to the monitor screens and hit several buttons. Bringing up loops of the various offenses Crash had launched on Subaru.

"What if Crash, who gained his phobia as a result of being beaten up by Combat Cyborgs, beat the ever living shit out of a combat cyborg?"

Shamal examined each of the scenes in turn. Technically, it would be similar in function to an extreme form of exposure therapy. Except, the recovery from exposure therapy was questionable on a good day. Still, there was the possibility that in beating Subaru this badly while in a primitive mental state, followed by receiving the reward response of a victory right after doing so, his subconscious closed the book on Combat Cyborgs being a threat. It would be valuable research material if true.

"It's possible," she commented at length. "But highly unlikely. Even if its accurate, it would be the fastest recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ever recorded. I suspect it may be only temporary, or at least, partial, pertaining only to Subaru."

"Still," Roland nodded. "It means that he can be snapped out of it with the right stimulation."

"I guess you could put it that way."

Roland stared at the screens and mulled over the thought of Crash broken of his annoying little phobia. If this could work…

"I'll have to think on this," the general nodded at length. "We're pretty much done here. Shamal, the information here is classified. I'll have Yagami brief you on the details."

"Yes sir…"

He turned to the two captains.

"Takamachi, Bardou. You're dismissed. Get out of my sight."

The two captains quickly saluted and made haste for the door.

* * *

Lynn, for the life of her, couldn't figure out exactly what had just transpired. A mistake nearly costing the life of a fellow member of the TSAB was not something that simply got brushed over with some forceful yelling. Sure, General Roland wasn't your average bureau commander, but still… She'd made a genuine life-threatening mistake of her own in starting the whole fiasco. Such a mistake was a complete failure on her part. A failure.

Failure was unacceptable.

It was thought that crossed her mind as she parted ways with a quiet nod to Captain Takamachi, and started wandering towards the roof. Crash had survived, no thanks to her carelessness, but it still pointed out how poor her judgement had been. She wanted to try a little of the legendary Ace of Aces herself since she had the opportunity. She wanted to pit her team against the group of Forward Combatants Nanoha had trained personally. The group who had stopped the Numbers while her own unit was chasing shadows on the far fringes of nowhere.

It wouldn't have hurt.

It SHOULDN'T have hurt.

Someone almost got killed…

A failure is a failure, and poor judgement must be corrected.

In order to be able to strike an enemy quickly, effectively, and decisively, one must have the clear and objective judgement to out think the enemy before they are even aware of the attack. A High Risk Assault specialist needed to be assured that the first strike delivered was the only strike needed. If she didn't have the judgement to recognize a possible danger, however unusual it might be considering the method of combat, she couldn't have that assurance in a critical situation.

And that would most certainly get her entire team killed…

Again.

Lynn buried that thought as she emerged onto the roof of RF-6 headquarters near the Helipad. It was dark out, and the JF-704 was likewise dark. However, despite this, the glow of Cranagan behind the building reflecting off some scattered mid-level clouds made more than enough light to see by. She'd come up here to think, but in the dark, noticed another figure over by the building's railing, looking out to sea.

Crash.

Deciding that she wouldn't find any solitude where someone else was seeking it, she started to turn away to find somewhere else. However, that nagging tone in the back of her head insisted that she owed him an apology at the very least. Causing her to freeze in half step.

Mistakes were to be corrected.

Heaving a sigh, she turned back to the pilot and walked towards a spot a moderate, but conversational distance away down the railing.

* * *

Crash, meanwhile, was brooding. He heard the person emerge from exit onto the roof, noticed the reflecting of indoor lighting on the rail. But he didn't care. He was too busy thinking about what he must have done in that fight. The total lack of any restraint he must have shown in that berserker state. He couldn't believe what the doc had told him. Even though he saw the recordings, he refused to believe it. There was no way he was essentially a sleepwalking killing machine on top of the hazard he'd become accustomed to life as.

The person behind heaved a sigh, and while he continued to mull over those thoughts, made to walk towards the rail, angling off to the left.

A minor note in Crash's mind considered the distance of the footsteps amidst his private self-loathing, noting that they would end at the rail just far enough to be respectful of his silent desire to be alone, but close enough to talk.

Deliberate.

But Crash continued to refuse to acknowledge that, choosing instead to drown his thinking in the sound of the waves from the shore not all that far from the building.

When the figure finally crossed into his peripheral vision, Crash noted the shiny silver of her hair the most. Lynn, that Shock Enforcer. Not Vita, not Roland, Not Nanoha, Subaru, or even Shamal trying to drag him back to a bed like a doctor would be prone to do. Just the Shock Enforcer.

Considering how little in the way of conversation she'd been up until this point, the threat of being disturbed vanished.

But still, the positioning was ideal for starting a conversation on awkward grounds. There was no doubt she wanted to say something, but also wanted to respect his privacy.

That's better than how most people had been behaving the last two days. Being treated like an object by everyone and his best friend had worn thin. Appraising out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't help but fall into a slightly old habit. Tracing the length of the rail from Lynn back to his spot where he leaned on an extremely sturdy concrete pillar that acted as an anchor for the rails, he spotted it. The building had been damaged in a firefight once, and it had minor signs of the damage left over where crews had obviously missed it over more critical damages. The loose bolt that anchored the rail to the pillar he rested against.

"Don't lean on the rail," he commented dryly, returning his eyes to the reflections of stars off the water. Lynn obviously wasn't expecting to have conversation initiated ahead of her. Reacting more in surprise than in acknowledgement, she backed off the rail.

"What?"

"Don't lean on the rail," he commented again. "It's not secure."

To emphasize, he decided on a quick demonstration, and dropped his hand from his chin, to slap the pillar he was leaning on.

"Ping!"

He couldn't see where it went in the dark, but he could tell the Shock Enforcer understood what he meant when the bolt freed itself from whatever tension it had been under.

"Oh," came the simple comment. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Crash responded. "Don't need any enforcers diving head first to their deaths… I already used our free pass regarding that. I don't think you'd be so lucky."

Lynn closed her mouth in silence. He pretty much started and ended the conversation with no real way for her to break the ice. And she couldn't exactly remain out here close enough to start another one if she looked silly standing back from the rail. Seeing no other option, she chose to be direct.

"I must apologize," she turned to him.

Crash regarded her in the corner of his vision.

"What for?"

"For my actions this morning," she continued.

"What actions?" he asked. "You didn't do anything to me."

"It was my decision to intrude on Captain Takamachi's training battle that resulted in the events that occurred." Lynn explained. "I made a critical error in my judgement based on eager selfishness. An error that got you hurt. I failed."

Crash turned his eyes back to the ocean, watching a play of moonlight from one of Mid-Childa's two moons on the waves.

"Not your fault," he began again at length. "Some things are going to fail whether you are involved or not. Trust me, I break enough stuff to know it. Just, things like to fail around some people a lot more than others. Don't let it bother you."

Lynn seemed somewhat satisfied, nodding silently before turning to walk away towards the rooftop exit somewhere behind... Still, it didn't seem quite right. It was just too easy. A few words just don't fix a mistake of this-

"Is it really so simple?"

The shock enforcer paused at the unexpected question the test pilot asked.

"Is what simple?" she asked.

"Combat," he responded. "Is it really nothing more than people breaking each other?"

Lynn regarded the unusual question with minor scrutiny. Something was definitely bothering him, and if she could help him come to terms, that would at least make up for loss. But this question…

"Yes," she commented at length, wandering back towards the pilot to come up along side him on the right. "It's a very simplified- Is this rail safe?"

"This one's fine," he commented, at which point she leaned against the rail opposite the one he'd warned her against.

"It's a very simplified way of putting it." She continued. "The nuances and methods are complex, but the core idea is that either you break your opponent, or your opponent will break you. Why do you ask?"

Crash sighed. "Long story, short point. I've never had a day of combat training outside of the TSAB basic course, and I've got everyone from the Ace of Aces to my own commander insisting that I could be utterly devastating if I would just go with it."

"From what I saw," Lynn commented. "You really could."

"Exactly," Crash sighed. "I proved them all right. I proved them all so right without a shadow of a doubt as to the contrary. Without a single day of active combat training."

"So what if they're right?" she asked. "If they're right, that's all there is to it. You have a quality most people train their entire lives for."

"A quality I don't fully understand," Crash commented sourly. "My first experience with combat was a nightmare. I was doing the preliminary field test work for my armor, when I was rerouted by someone in high command to be a mop up man for some straggler drones involved in the auction incident. Instead, I was engaged by six combat cyborgs in a jamming barrier in the middle of the Ceres Ocean without anyone to back me up. I remember every move we made, even as I futilely tried to evade them for exactly two minutes and twenty-eight seconds before they finally managed to out maneuver me. The armor was the only thing that saved me, and was probably what they were after the whole time."

"Not bad for no experience," Lynn nodded.

"It gets better," Crash prompted. "Since the armor protected me from the attack, they hadn't taken me out like they intended. And when I recovered from the hit, something snapped. I went ballistic. I splashed the one who'd hit me first in under fifteen seconds. I don't know who she was, but I remember the cold business-like look on her face when she'd hit me the first time… And then the look of shock when I cleared six thousand vertical feet with a MACH Strafe and punched as if to go right through her. After she went flying, I shot her with a low power buster before she'd even recovered orientation. I remember every move I made, but not why I was making them and what I was responding to. I just 'DID'… The only other thing I could remember was thinking that if I was going down, I was going to make regret having to carry me back as a prize."

"Hell of a first battle," Lynn nodded solemnly. "I can see what made you act the way you did this morning. So what happened next?"

"I fought them at those odds for another five minutes," Crash continued. "I was beyond fighting for my life, I was fighting just to spite them as much as possible before they killed me. But they were catching on to the tricks the armor was allowing me to pull off. They would have run me down simply by taking turns in the attack slot. Then Roland finally got a message that reinforcements were on the way using a very odd trick with ionizing the upper atmosphere… Don't ask. It snapped me out of it, and I broke off. It was actually Nanoha and Fate who made the intercept, but I never saw them. I just saw their busters clearing the air, and had a brief radio exchange before sprinting at mach three all the way back to base… But not before taking out the drone that had been causing the jamming."

"You stood up to superior odds and came out not only alive, but in good shape," Lynn commented. "There are many who've gone up against far less, and come out far worse. I lost my first squad command over an intelligence error and a tactical mistake. The people I'd been through the academy with, my best friends. All dead… I barely came out alive. I don't know how it happened really, but we were slaughtered so fast and clinically, it was infuriating."

"What happened?" Crash asked.

"HE happened," Lynn shook her head. "We encountered the silent shadow himself. Mr. Kage, the man in the mask, head of Sektor Twenty One. He never spoke. He simply appeared, and destroyed my squad so fast I couldn't even figure out what fighting style he used. I was pinned under a cinder block wall and severely burned by an explosion from one of his attacks. That's why my hair is uneven. If it weren't for modern magical healing, I'd have been scarred for life, had I survived. But as a reminder of that failure, I kept my hair this way."

"You never even stood a chance," Crash pointed out.

"But if I had even one TENTH the natural skills at the time that you have," Lynn continued. "I could have done something. I could have injured him, slowed him down… Just making him bleed would have been enough to get a DNA ID on the bastard. But as it stands, I made a grievous mistake choosing to pursue after it was obvious the intel was botched. I thought my squad of rookies could handle whomever we met. They paid for my mistake with their life. Just a tenth of your skill would have been all I asked for."

"Skill I'm not in control of…" Crash quipped. "Okay, so I can fight. Whoopee. I proved Will right, sure, but how many people might I have accidentally killed with my own two hands? If they hadn't been so sharp, I might have gone and killed Subaru… And THAT scares me more than life threatening combat ever could."

"Fear is normal," Lynn nodded.

"Is it normal to fear yourself more than the enemy?" Crash asked. "I'm a danger to myself and everyone around me on a good day. But now…"

Lynn turned her head. He really was beating himself up over this. The sad look on his face just didn't seem to belong.

"You have the ability to handle it," she reassured him.

"I don't know how," Crash sighed. "I just don't know how."

"Then perhaps," she began again. "What you need, is to learn how."

Crash turned his head to look at her.

"What do you mean?" he began. "That's what everyone's been trying to teach me."

Lynn shook her head.

"They've been trying to teach you skills you already know. From what you've told me, the thing that's lacking is your own confidence in what you can do."

"And what do you suggest I do there?" Crash asked, turning his head to look at the waves again. "Watch video of myself? News flash. Already did, doesn't work."

"No."

Crash looked Lynn once more. Her features had hardened to their cold determination he'd remembered.

"What you need, is to experience your own skills," she stated, then smiled softly. "Would you care to spar?"

"Spar?" Crash asked.

"Spar," Lynn nodded. "No magic, no scenarios, no pressure. Just, spar."

"And what if I accidentally hurt you?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure that if I hurt you right after the insanity that happened today that-"

"You WON'T hurt me," Lynn interrupted, her gaze turning deadly. Crash could almost feel the frosty glare before it softened and she spoke up again. "You also worry too much."

"For good reason," he patted the rail he'd warned her against.

'Clang!' it dropped free and hit the concrete at their feet.

"Except you notice it," she admonished. "If you can figure out what will happen before it has a chance to happen, that's a threat accounted for. It's something you can prepare for."

Crash sighed. The enforcer was right. He was worrying over things he could easily account for.

"Alright," he nodded at last. "If you think it will help."

Lynn smiled. Perfect! If she could just get him to engage his own fears, he'd be on the road to recovering his dignity. This would require a, 'creative' approach.

"Step over here," she motioned towards the wide area away from the edge of the roof. Crash followed the shock enforcer until she planted herself squarely in the middle.

"We'll start by letting you see for yourself just how fast you can react to threats," she instructed. "This exercise will be simple. I'm going to hit you, and you must avoid being hit. To make things easier, I'll be calling out the intended target of my strike. You simply prevent that blow from landing."

Crash blinked.

"Wait, how am I supposed to prevent you from-"

"FACE!" she snapped.

Crash's eyes widened as a blur shot forward at him. Moving to protect his nose, he snapped his arm up in response, knocking Lynn's fist to the side."

"Just like that," she pointed out. Crash looked over, she'd kept her arm in place where he'd pushed it to the outside. "Your body knows what it's doing. Trust it."

The test pilot nodded mutely as she pulled her arm back and took a fighting stance. After a moment, she instructed again.

"Watch my face," she indicated. "Don't telegraph what you're thinking. Ready?"

Crash locked his eyes on Lynn's.

"Okay…"

She inhaled deeply and then let it out, relaxing and loosening up, then paused for several seconds. Crash was beginning to think-

"FACE!"

He moved on instinct to swat the blow away again. Lynn's eyes flicked off his to the hand he used for a moment then back to him.

"STOMACH!"

'Swat!'

"Throat!"

Deflected. Lynn then decided to change up on him.

"KNEE!"

Crash bent and swatted, but missed as she snapped a soft kick to the side of his knee, causing him to hop the blow off slightly. However, she didn't really strike with force, intending only to make it sting.

"You don't have to hold still," she advised. "If you can avoid the blow by dodging, do so."

Crash nodded and resumed the stance he was using.

"KNEE!" she snapped. Again, she lashed out with her leg, but this time Crash snapped the intended target back in a step motion.

"FACE!" and she took a swipe again. This time Crash tilted his head back, using the combination of the slight distance gained from his step and the motion to make her strike pass inches in front of him.

"Very good," she commented. "See, you are perfectly capable of reading these moves. Now I'm going to speed this up. Get ready for a combo. And relax… you don't need to be tense."

Crash nodded, trying to follow her method of loosening.

After a few more seconds, she stepped in. Crash caught the motion and started moving his hands before her mouth opened.

"FACE!"

'SWAT'

"STOMACH!"

'SWAT'

"STOMACH!"

'SWAT!'

"FACE!"

'SWOOSH!'

Crash ducked back as he read her motion, flowing from the reverse punch around the spin on her foot into a kick, and stepped back. Then she picked up even more speed.

"FACE! KNEE! STOMACH! SHOULDER! FOOT! FOOT! CHEST! THROAT! GROIN! FACE!"

In a blur, the test pilot rapidly worked to keep up with the wild and varied barrage, no longer even paying attention to what she was saying, and gulping internally at a narrowly avoided groin strike before jumping back completely to clear her face swing.

"Very good!" she nodded as she came to a stop. "I see I can dispense with the informed attacks. The next set will have no warnings. Don't get hit!"

Crash blinked and took a surprise step back, but before he could open his mouth, the shock enforcer was coiling into an attack stance. The first move she let loose was a roundhouse kick, closing the distance at the same time. Then she repeated the move and used the momentum to launch into a series of blows that conserved her angular momentum as well as minimized the time between one attack and the next.

Crash responded to the attack by backpedaling away from the two kicks before slapping a blow down and stepping over a sweep. Lynn increased the rate of her attack once more, stepping in close and attempting to either punch him, or slap him in the face with the flat of her hand, just because she could. He couldn't quite tell, but he swore he caught her smirking when he slapped that one away. This went on for several more seconds as the test pilot systematically retreated to control her distance from him.

"You. Can. Do. This." she commented between swings. And then she finished with a flourish by stepping out of a spin and lashing her palm flat and forward. Crash rolled sideways and let it hit air. Lynn paused in the finishing stance.

"Simple," she nodded. "Look how well you avoided that mess."

"Did you try to SLAP me in the face?" Crash asked.

Lynn smirked. He been able to pick that detail out…

"What's it to you?"

Crash bristled. She DID, she did try to sneak a cheeky little insult to mock him. Good thing it didn't land.

Lynn saw his eyes twitch ever so slightly. Good.

"Now if you want to make something of it," she commented. "We'll take this up a notch. You are welcome to attack."

And she stepped in again, slower once more, but still rather quickly as she launched an assault. Crash backpedaled from the attack, a little shocked at how fast this was progressing. Catching an opening, he took a swipe, which was blocked easily, forcing him to defend against a snap combo as she took revenge on the attack. Again, he saw an opening and started to go for it, but rescinded half way there when she came around to counter it with a weak strike, causing him to flinch and step back before it could land.

"You'll never hit me second guessing your moves like that," she snapped after the follow up sweep. "If you're going to fight, you're going to take a few hits. Stop thinking about it and get used to it. It's more important to know what you can and can't handle."

To emphasize her point, Lynn feinted twice and tapped a snap punch into Crash's open shoulder. The pilot winced, but the blow wasn't intended to really hurt more than just be felt. Crash jumped back and sized her up for a moment, absent-mindedly rubbing the spot she hit.

"Right…" he commented, eyes narrowing. "Stop thinking…"

"Exactly!" Lynn responded. "Don't think, DO."

And to her surprise, Crash planted his foot and launched a true attack.

The blows were sloppy, but quickly showed clear intent to hold the initiative, keeping her defensive as they reversed the overall picture of who was forcing who to backpedal. Quickly bringing herself back up to speed, Lynn let her combat skills take hold and found an opening in his moves to launch a counter assault, reversing momentum again.

This went on for a few seconds until Crash likewise turned the offensive about… with the same exploit she'd just used. He couldn't have learned to recognize that! Could he?

"Incredible!" she snapped in the middle of her retreating exchange. "Pay attention! This is what you can do and more!"

Crash blinked wide eyed, realizing how fast his body was moving in response to her, and for just a moment, slowed down. Lynn smirked and shot in on the opening he left, only to blink in surprise when the opening closed itself via Crash slapping her strike aside forcefully. That's when it really hit her. While working him over, she'd been more occupied with building his confidence than evaluating him as a fellow combatant. That last sloppy response made her realize one important factor. Without their magic, he was the physically superior specimen. He was bigger, stronger, and had much farther reach, and he was in great shape.

Lynn leapt back as he seemed to take energy from the confidence he was gaining to accelerate his assault. On top of things, big didn't mean slow. Crash was up to speed, and Lynn was amazed. He was lightning fast. Almost as fast as her in a powered down state. In the accelerated attack, he quickly drove the shock enforcer back as she relaxed to evaluate him some more. His moves were fast, but he was very sloppy. His techniques little more than close mimics of actual refined combat moves. He was wasting precious energy and time telegraphing the moves he was making and striking many a time with more force than he had to. Against anything less than a person specialized in open hand close combat, it would remain unnoticed, but for her, it was showing in bright neon lettering. He would wear himself out if he didn't go for a-

Crash pushed her defense to the side, long enough for his foot to snap into the air above his head.

-Finishing Move!

Lynn responded with insane speed, rolling counter-intuitively into the kill zone of the attack and lashed out with her foot, knocking Crash's planted leg out from under him. The test pilot toppled instantly. Lynn then realized what he did as her thinking caught up with her. Add flexibility to the list. That was a heal kick he'd attempted.

Crash struck the ground, but didn't stop there, even as Lynn followed up to hit him while he was on the ground. He rolled clear of her attack and pushed himself to his feet, immediately having to skip back several steps as Lynn arrested total initiative and drove him retreating across the rooftop.

Crash finally managed to fight his way to a stop and leaned into a tight guard, breaking into a counter offensive that drove her back as fast as she had driven him. This time the moves, while still sloppy, were a lot tighter, almost as if he'd already worked out what was wrong and was fixing the moves up to make it work. Not wanting to let him slack off, Lynn broke his guard and pressed a counter-attack, coming well inside his reach and exchanging strike attempts so close she noticed how fast his eyes were darting back and forth.

Crash snapped a punch and used that to step back out of the fray and coil his body. Lynn prepared to close in and prevent him from launching when she realized he was already half way there. His foot coming up and over so fast into a heal drop that her only option was to catch and roll with the blow before trying to dump him off to the side.

The enforcer was genuinely shocked. Did he actually recognize the mistake of his previous heel kick and corrected it in that brief amount of time? The problem with the previous kick was that it was a two step up-and-down motion. Which left it wide open during the momentary pause at the top of the swing. In this one, he'd launched it as a circular sweep from the side, cutting the time on it in half. He was doing spectacularly, but it would take more than just some hand to hand to get him comfortable with his techniques. He would still require having a feel for his powered up state. Given how his body seemed to be fine, it was probably safe to do so.

"Look at that!" she snapped as they parted. "You have a master fighter's reflexes. Even if you're sloppy. You actually surprised me with that kick."

"I did?" Crash asked.

Lynn nodded.

"I've not sparred with someone capable of landing a straight blow on me except for the most well trained hand to hand experts," she complimented him. Of course, she left out that she wasn't fighting to the fullest of her natural talent, but he needed the confidence. "You're still lacking in subtlety though, but I have just the trick for that."

With a snap, she activated her barrier jacket, going from her regular enforcer uniform to a white body suit. She could visibly see Crash try to hide a cringe, obviously understanding where this was heading.

"Transform and power up," she ordered. "You know what your body can do, now you just need to see your power at work."

"Is that a good idea?" Crash asked. "I'm over a hundred times stronger in the armor and if I slip up in that it'll end up hurting-"

"Don't THINK" Lynn admonished. "Just DO."

Crash shut his mouth and activated the Olympian armor with a flash of light.

"The armor is merely an extension of your body," Lynn advised him. "It doesn't do anything you don't tell it to do first. If you punch, it punches. If you dodge, it dodges. It's your body it's following, not a predetermined path. If you jump…"

Lynn pushed off the concrete and flipped backward in a wide arc to land on the elevated part of the roof. Over a dozen meters away.

"…It jumps!" She finished. "Now jump up here!"

Crash took an apprehensive breath, but obeyed, jumping up after the enforcer in a slightly steeper arc, without any of the fancy flipping she had done in the process. He landed with a mild thud that made him wince as cracks splintered out from where he'd come to a stop.

Lynn regarded the damage left without betraying any emotion. It gave her an idea on how to teach this lesson, without having to make him more nervous by fighting in his armor.

"All you need to do," she explained. "Is learn to recognize exactly how much more powerful your armor makes you, and learn to recognize the difference. It's just a simple matter of learning control. Power is nothing. If you can make the armor do things as gently as you desire, you're in full control."

With that she turned, looking down at some of the balconies below.

"This is what we're going to do," she instructed. "Follow me. Land where I land. And all you have to do, is land softly."

And she jumped. Crash watched her seem to float silently until she landed like a cat on a pillar for a balcony rail below. Looking back up, she waved him down.

Crash leapt into open space… Apprehensive as he aimed for her. As he approached, she bounced down to a lower balcony as lithely as a gymnast. Crash hit the pillar with a thud, feeling a slight shift as it cracked and tried to crumble from the impact.

"Use some flight magic to lighten the load," she instructed. "Float that landing!"

Crash leapt again, following her down and taking her advice to try and soften the landing. Lynn split her legs and pitched backwards off her perch with a flip.

Roland, Hayate, and Shamal were still conversing when Lynn's sudden landing on the balcony beyond Hayate's window caught the General's attention. As he gave a startled look, the other two turned to observe as Lynn, staring at something above her, hopped back from one rail pillar to the next deftly, then did a back flip over to the next before leaping on out of sight.

A second later, an even bigger surprise happened when a matte gray eight hundred pound power armored suit landed with only a mild clank in the same spot, on one foot. Then it bounded quickly to the next step and mimicked the flip by twisting first. Then it too leapt clear.

For a few seconds, the three stared out the window, until finally, they looked at each other. Roland and Shamal then raced for the balcony and threw it open as fast as they could.

"Keep it up!" Lynn responded as Crash followed her across the length of the building, hopping from balcony to balcony in a clumsy, but softening chase. At last, she ran out of building and bounded cleanly onto the top of one of the parking lot lampposts. Crash landed on the balcony she'd left and turned, then stopped and crossed his arms.

Lynn looked down at her perch and understood. Even landing lightly, this one wouldn't hold that armor.

"Okay!" She shouted. "Try and keep up!"

And with a spring, rocketed upwards into a high arc, leaving a faint silver blue trail of the flight magic she'd used to massively augment the jump.

Crash crouched, the Grav Drive having warmed up, and leapt after her. They arced over the highway running behind RF-6 Headquarters and landed on a building across it, but she didn't stop, choosing instead to bound farther and higher onto a taller building, making her way towards the largest buildings she could find in the area. Crash worked doggedly to land exactly where she had been, as if trying to jump on her. Lynn didn't make it easy, but she didn't make it too hard by staying only half a jump ahead of him.

Soon the two were bounding a quarter mile at a time, their ground speed higher than most light aircraft as they leapfrogged about the district. Things got increasingly more difficult when Lynn suddenly decided to land on a delivery truck moving down the highway, before bouncing into the gap between two buildings and wall jumping back and forth up the side of them. It was an exercise in precision and speed, one that Crash concentrated all he could to prevent damaging the vehicle when he landed with a hollow thump and took off again without so much as a dent.

As he ascended into the gap, he put his arm out to soften his impact into the wall, and then pushed up and off to the other one, then repeated Lynn's moves before following her out of the gap at the top onto the rooftop. He landed deceptively soft as she took several running bounds ahead across the rooftop before taking a diving leap over the side.

He could do this! And what's more… this was… FUN!

Inhaling deeply, Crash smiled, and took a running start, diving headfirst over the side… To be presented with a rooftop a lot closer than he had predicted. Twirling rapidly and controlling his descent, he hit the roof and launched himself forward into a roll before pushing off with his hands and bounding right to his feet and into a dash behind Lynn. Who bounded off an air conditioning unit the size of a truck and over the side of the building.

This wasn't so bad! The armor was so responsive, that if the HUD wasn't there, he would have forgotten it was there in the first place.

About then, a message alert popped up in the corner.

Cranagan Center Air Traffic Control (CCATC):

-CLASS B AIRSPACE CLEARANCE APPROVED-

Altitude and airspeed restrictions canceled.

"I didn't request a class B airspace transition," he blinked in confusion, absentmindedly following Lynn through another bound off a highway right in front of a slightly surprised motorist.

Watching Lynn bound in front of him, and realizing he hadn't had this much fun since that first flight test of the armor, a devilish grin washed over his face. As they bounded their way back westward, he pushed off sharply, climbing through his arc much faster than the enforcer did.

Timing the stunt just right, he swooped up behind her and above, just fast enough to easily slip his arms under hers, and hook her below the shoulders.

"What the-" she began, craning her neck back to look up at him. "What are you doing?"

"I feel like having some fun," Crash crackled. "What's the fastest you've ever gone?"

"I can hit mach one in an attack dive," she snapped. "Why?"

"Way too slow!" Crash smirked behind his faceplate.

Transitioning into full flight, he leveled them off, but kept her held firmly in his grip.

"You ever heard of advanced barrier shaping principle?" he asked. "It's got some really neat uses."

"I've heard of it," she commented. "But I don't normally have time for 'neat' uses."

"Oh you'll like this one," the pilot crackled back. Looking down, he watched the coastline approach as he took them out of the city and into the bay. He was picking up a little speed as he did so. "The idea is that shaped barrier principle can be used to simulate complex mechanical designs. In fact, an aerodynamics barrier is a very simple use for it."

"What's that got to do with how fast I've gone, or what we're doing here?" Lynn asked.

Crash checked again, the coast passed below them and they were now over the water. Commanding silently, the armor and the device running it responded by activating the barrier.

Lynn looked as a cone shaped barrier formed around them, followed a moment later by a second barrier that looked like two funnels meeting end on end.

"What are-"

There was a crack back behind their feet, and a glow, and she felt as if someone had just strapped a rocket to her as they began to pick up speed rapidly.

"This is called a SCRAMJET!" Crash crackled over the noise. "It's the engine principle that makes this armor capable of doing mach three, and it's made completely out of barriers! HOLD ON!"

The enforcer's eyes nearly bugged out as they passed through the mach one threshold; moonlight briefly reflecting off a conical cloud that formed as they continued to accelerate.

She wasn't used to this. This wasn't what she was trained for. This wasn't what she had in mind. Maybe this was a bad idea after all.

Crash leaned back slightly, causing them to climb.

"Mach two!" he announced. "We're clear to go as fast as we want out here."

With that, he rolled on his side and yanked them to the left, causing her heart to skip a beat. And after a moment, he snapped a roll the other direction and turned hard again.

"Mach two point five!" He announced over the din of the super cruise 'engine'. "Two and a half times faster than you've ever gone! Now to get some altitude!"

Crash yanked hard upwards, causing Lynn to feel vertigo she felt only during her most intense attack moves, but worse. After a brief climb, Crash suddenly rolled on his back and pitched himself back to level off, causing Lynn a elicit a yelp of surprise.

"Now who's scared?" he asked in amusement. "Cruisers in orbit go faster than this. Relax, or you'll miss the light show."

Light show? Lynn calmed herself slightly trying to figure out what he was talking about. Looking around, she realized that at the speed he was holding, they'd already carried out to sea quite the distance from Cranagan. Away from the light of the city, the moon reflected off the waves far below them in a hazy pattern, and the clouds around them were lined with silver. However, out ahead of them, was what he meant. A solid mass of silver topped clouds stretching in a line from the north to the south, flickering constantly with the internal lighting of lightning.

The effect was stunning.

"That's beautiful…" she stated in surprise. Seeing things like this from orbit didn't have quite that feeling of… REAL, that this had. Being in the middle of the picture was a little different than observing the painting from a distance.

"Isn't it?" Crash asked in response. "This is where it's at, being in the middle of it and seeing nature at it's most awesome. And that cold front is about get a LOT more awesome."

"Wait, you're going to fly INTO it?" Lynn asked. There was a line one didn't cross when it came to ignoring your fears, and doing things that were just plain stupid.

"Oh HELL no," Crash crackled back. "We're not flying INTO it. At this speed we'll cause compression lightning non-stop and I don't even want to think about mach three hail stones. I'm not crazy enough to see if this suit can survive that kind of punishment, barriers or no. We're just going to get… a little closer. You up for it?"

Lynn took a breath and looked around. He hadn't lost it after all. That was a good sign. Might as well have some fun. Looking up, she smiled, and nodded.

Crash, for his part, was just having fun flying like he'd always wanted to, but having been stressed and worried almost from the day he'd gotten this suit, he'd never had the chance. Now it was back. The feeling he'd lost months ago. The reason he was a test pilot.

'Crack!'

They accelerated again, this time Lynn watched their surroundings as Crash picked an altitude that placed them amidst the most clouds, giving a true sense of speed as they raced past. They closed on the cold front that lurked far out to sea, the wall of storm clouds looming up before them menacingly. With a single sharp roll, Crash began a turn to the south, his turning radius stretching for over a mile at this speed. But he lined it up perfectly and before long they were skirting the front of the weather system. Huge cumulonimbus clouds billowed on their right, blinking brilliantly in the dark as they tore a line sometimes, just feet away. After a bit of altitude shifting, Crash found where the lower clouds depressed back into the storm, and where the higher clouds spread out above them, leaving a gap of clear air, and flew them right into the niche. Now the flickering light show was on three sides, with moonlight and the distant glow of Cranagan off to the left.

Lynn relaxed completely. This is what it felt like to just cut loose and have fun with magic. It was exhilarating.

After about a minute of straight up cruising, Crash yanked them up and to the left, passing only just barely through the cloud tops of an anvil before leveling off at thirty-five thousand feet, pointing them back towards Cranagan.

"I guess I should thank you," Crash crackled at length. Lynn craned her neck and looked up.

"You helped me find something I thought I'd lost," he continued. "I owe you one, thanks."

"Don't mention it," Lynn smiled. "I was just trying to make up for my mistake this morning."

"You'll have to teach me some of those moves though," Crash commented. "I'm apparently not half bad, but I'm no expert. And Fox doesn't teach as well as she learns."

"She did good enough," Lynn laughed.

"Hey," Crash interjected. "You CAN laugh! And here since I met you I thought you were nothing but business."

Lynn laughed again. It felt so good.

* * *

Ten minutes later they were sub-sonic again, coasting in gently to the rooftop of RF-6 headquarters. Crash set down like a feather, letting go of Lynn as he transitioned from flying to a brisk walk as if it was nothing.

"Easier than I thought," he commented. "Just ease the angle right into a walk and reach out, nothing to it."

With a flash, he powered down, returning to his normal uniform jacket. Lynn did the same and they both made their way for the door. It was then that Crash noticed they weren't alone on the roof.

Shamal was there, looking like a very angry mother hen with her arms crossed in front of her. Vita was next to her, almost seething with anger, but strangely quiet, Graf Eisen clearly out over her shoulder. Roland was behind them, his emotions masked behind his game face.

"Uh oh," Crash muttered to the enforcer quietly. "Mama bear isn't happy, and she brought papa bear and hammer bear with her. I think we're in trouble."

Lynn quickly melted into her own game face in response.

"You!" Shamal pointed at Crash. "I told you that you weren't even supposed to be UP and about, and here you are not only participating in strenuous activity without my approval, but flying… FLYING! You're as bad as Nanoha! Back in bed. NOW!"

Crash tried to suppress a laugh, but knew there was no arguing with the doctor this time. Not when she had her right hand hammer girl with the anesthesia at the ready.

Crash walked up to them but stopped just short as he glanced at Vita. And a silly thought popped into his head. He'd won their little bet after all…

"You owe me a 'bed time' story," he pointed out. "And I'm not going to sleep until I get it."

Vita's eyes widened in shock, and she worked her mouth several times before she completely lost her 'Hired Muscle' composure and lowered her head, shaking it.

"Whatever," she grumbled. "Just go get in bed… And don't think for a second I'm going to tuck your ass in."

"Fair enough," Crash smirked, then moved forward, stopping next to Roland.

"Funny thing," he stated curiously. "Did you hear from anyone about airspace clearance?"

Shamal glared at the two.

"I authorized no requests for Class B airspace clearance," the General commented coldly.

"Didn't think so," Crash shook his head and continued on, Vita giving him a gentle 'move prisoner' kind of poke with Graf Eisen. After a moment, Shamal sighed, and shook her head, casting a softening glare at Lynn before she followed.

For a second, the general stood quietly, glaring at the enforcer until Shamal's footsteps retreated. Then, he let his poker face slip, and smirked.

"After all," he commented dryly to his remaining audience. "I didn't receive any 'requests' for Class B airspace clearance, or altitude clearance, or speed clearance. How could I grant them?"

Lynn's mouth dropped open as the general turned away.

He really was two-faced!


	11. Chapter 11: Bunker Buster Bums

7:08 AM (Local)

Have you ever had one of those dreams?

You know the type. The ones that you tell your friends about later that makes them wonder what kind of CRACK you've been smoking… Or at least, you imagine that's what their response would be.

Ever had a dream like that?

Imagine if you could, half a dozen combat cyborgs, in full battle gear, standing on empty air at six thousand feet. Okay, given the scenario that might not be too weird. But what if they were singing?

And not merely some little battle hymn or catchy tune, but singing with a full dance number up to and including line dancing. Now throw in the fact that they're all wearing tiger stripe bikinis and pirate hats and you have a display that Freud would have a field day with.

The only thing that didn't seem to match up, was the music. It consisted of a catchy tune, but was drowned out constantly by a loud tone, and had been that way for a good half the dance number. Finally, the one in the middle got fed up with the obnoxious sound, turned, pointed her finger, and-

'BANG!'

Crash sat bolt upright in the infirmary bed.

"CUTE-BUT-DEADLY!" He snapped, almost falling off the side in surprise.

After a few seconds, the face of General Roland resolved next to him, bathed in a harsh pulsing red glow, the door behind him shaking as if it had been slammed open in a hurry.

"Whoa, you've gained demonic powers," Crash blinked groggily. "The evil glowy kind…"

"Don't be daft!" Roland snapped, stepping away from the bed. "I can't believe you could sleep right through an alarm that loud."

"Alarm?" Crash asked. Looking around, he realized for the first time the ambient red glow of several information hologram panels all displaying 'ALERT' in bright red Mid-Childan lettering. In time with those, came the shrieks of the standard Mid-Childan emergency action signal; A combination of a high pulsing squeak, and a slow howling klaxon.

"Oh, that alarm."

"Get up. Get your jacket. " Roland snapped. "I want to be airborne in fifteen minutes."

"Airborne?" Crash asked, shaking the sleep off. "What's going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know too!" Shamal snapped, briskly entering the room. "Just where do you think you're going with my patient General? I haven't released him yet."

"Now is not the time doctor," Roland replied sharply as they made their way out of the room. "I've got a situation to deal with, and I need my personnel now."

"What's the situation?" Crash asked, but immediately he felt ignored as Shamal continued to bicker in what her opinion was his best interest.

"I still haven't been able to determine if there's any lasting injury from yesterday's incident," she informed the rapidly striding commander. "The nature of his injuries may still have unseen effects and it's just not safe to let him walk out of here as if nothing happened."

Roland whirled on her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Look, I know you want to make sure he's okay," he began. "But unless you have something more solid than your own vague sense of unease, I'm going to have to disregard your advice. Do you have any kind of evidence to back your suspicions? Or is it just that his recovery was 'too easy' for your own tastes?"

Shamal worked her mouth once, but bit her lip and huffed grumpily.

"I thought so," Roland nodded. "If it helps, I think it's all too convenient myself. But my pilot is not a case study on unusual linker core conditions, and I need him, NOW."

"What is going ON?!" Crash interrupted loudly, this time determined not to be brushed off. Slightly surprised by his aggressiveness, Roland stared at his pilot for a few seconds before responding.

"Just a few minutes ago we picked up a signal on the short wave band from MIDSAT Alpha, relaying a text message."

Crash squinted and turned his head.

"What?"

"We got a short message from McGreggor," Roland continued. "It cited code: One, two, zero, seven, one, nine, four, one."

Crash froze, his eyes getting wide as his face drained of color.

"Oh shit…"

Shamal looked between the two.

"What?" she asked.

"It's an emergency code," the General explained. "It corresponds with a date back home. And it means simply-"

Crash bolted down the hall, interrupting his commander with a quick reply.

"Abenobashi is under attack! Which means Fox is in danger!"

"Exactly," Roland finished wryly, turning back to Shamal. "And I'm willing to be you that it's those psychos, Sektor Twenty-One. So I need all the manpower I can get."

Shamal sighed deeply, but the harsh look on her face melted to defeat.

"Do what you have to," she nodded. "But try to keep him in one piece. I have enough problems patching Nanoha up from her own bull-headed antics."

Roland set his jaw.

"I don't intend to get my best soldier killed," he asserted firmly. "And you still have Yagami to take care of. Focus on her, and I'll focus on Crash. Deal?"

"Deal," Shamal nodded.

"Good."

Roland moved past her and began half-jogging at brisk pace down the hall before she suddenly turned and shouted after him.

"Sir!"

"What?" Roland snapped over his shoulder.

Shamal's gaze turned deadly as she clenched her fists.

"Kick their ass," she stated. "For Hayate."

"They're on my turf now!" he responded, rounding a corner. "And I don't play nice…"

* * *

"I'm through playing nice with these punks!"

Martin turned his head to Don, lit by the dim red glow of emergency lights. The last twenty minutes had gone to hell in a hand basket. He'd been down here doing his usual early morning briefing with Don when Lime had noted some rather strange magical readings across the complex. The next thing the sub-commander knew she was barking about the appearance of Type I gadget drones all over the place, AMF going up, and all manner of general noise. Seeing an AI like Lime actually panic had pretty much an academic response. He immediately slapped his hand on the command console's hard-wired panic button. And not a moment too soon. Seconds later Cherry reported the systematic destruction of the communications network.

The base's assailants got to work quickly. Drones spread out in every direction, tearing into any vehicles or equipment in the open while various groups of armed men set loose shooting at any personnel they saw. They watched this horror for five minutes before a shudder and the sudden blackout of the cameras announced the destruction of the primary generators.

TICTOCC of course, had backups.

"Let me out, I'll rip them apart," the senior mechanic snarled at the main entrance.

"Warrant Officer Donald," Martin commented dryly. "For the fifth time, calm down."

"How can I keep calm at a time like this?" Don asked with a snarl. "Those bastards practically appeared out of nowhere and started trashing everything in sight. Months of work, RUINED!"

The XO huffed and shook his head, turning away from the ranting mechanic.

"Cherry," he commented to the screens in front of him. "Did you find their insertion point?"

"Camera Five Charlie Seven," the demure AI responded. "Just twenty seconds before the communications towers were knocked out."

The AI displayed a grainy image showing the glowing edges of a spell pattern mostly obscured outside the camera's field of vision. After a few seconds it flashed brightly. A moment later, several drones and men started flooding into view, fanning out in all directions.

"There were six altogether," Bloodberry cut in. "Obviously previously prepared summoning patterns. The distance between them and raw power is too much to be done on the spot. This was a carefully executed attack."

"So what was used to trigger them all at once?" Martin continued. "Did you locate the source?"

"Cell phone transmission," Bloodberry commented idly. "The main signal came from the test facility cargo landing strip near the test hangars. It was relayed across our comm system before they blew up. That's the only way a weak signal like that could have hit all the islands. The bombs that took out the comms were probably wired on a delay.

"How's the air field looking?" Martin continued. "Anyone get off the ground?"

"I can't say for certain without the cameras," Cherry advised. "But from what I could tell, no aircraft were able to launch in time and one of the circles was right on the runway. Last contact with AWACS Glass Eye was zero-five hundred when the comms went out. Vector three, three, six at one hundred miles polar Abenobashi. Altitude angels twenty-six, heading two six zero."

Cherry's screen blinked out to be replaced with a mid-range map of McGreggor, marking the last known position of the aircraft and its projected course.

"Hmmm…. If they follow procedure," Martin began. "They'll climb to their max altitude and fly in the direction of Cranagan until they can establish contact. I'm not sure if that alert signal got out before the comms went down. We may be down here for three hours before anyone even knows there's a problem. What's the casualty count?"

"Hell if I know," Bloodberry supplied. "All sector nodes indicated a successful lockdown except for Seimei, so most everyone who wasn't hurt or killed in the initial attack should be safe, for now."

"However," Cherry continued in her sibling's place. "The suddenness of the attack no doubt means that all exterior guards near the strike area are probably dead or seriously wounded. Only the fact that this occurred so early has kept my casualty estimates in the double digits."

"And what's your estimate of our holdout time?" The vice-commander continued.

"TICTOCC security bulkheads have all fully sealed," Cherry answered. "Unless they're dedicating their attack to this facility, it would be impossible to breach-"

'Thunk!'

Don whirled on the sound coming from a panel near the ground on the left side of the wall. A flash of light forming a large vehicle wrench in his hand. Martin likewise, whipped out an S3U device and tracked the spot where he heard the sound.

"My first chance to make someone regret attacking us," Don shook his head with a smirk. "Come on out punk!"

There was a metallic thud as something hit the panel. Then it repeated twice more, jarring it loose. Finally, with a loud bang, the panel popped free, disgorging a large man in a white coat.

"AIR!" he gasped in a near panic. It was only for his recognition of that absurd outfit that kept Don from killing Cooper with a blow to the head.

"You blundering dumbass!" the senior mechanic snapped in slight relief. "I was about to give you a lobotomy."

"AIR!" Cooper gasped again, trying to crawl away from the new entrance.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Don asked. "Did you not hear what I-"

"Step back, STEP BACK!" Key barked from under Cooper's coat, making Don back off a few steps. "Can't you see he's claustrophobic?"

"How'd you two get in here?" Martin asked with a scowl. "This place is harder to crack than Bureau HQ Tower."

"The level three underground utility tunnel from server center two," Key responded as if it was obvious. "It connects with the central air shaft just below security seal six. There was just enough room for LARDO here to squeeze into it."

"That tunnel's two hundred meters long," Don frowned. "How did you manage to get him to crawl that length like this?"

"You'd be surprised how motivated Cooper can be when his ass is on the line," Key chortled.

"And the shaft?" Martin tilted his head. "Hundred foot drop there…"

"He's fat," the device snapped back sarcastically. "The shaft's half a meter wide. Do the math."

"Is he going to be okay?" Don turned to the engineer.

"I'm," Cooper began between huffs. "Okay… It was dark… So I couldn't actually see how small the shaft was. Otherwise…"

Martin turned back to the command terminal.

"Do you think you could get any kind of communications working?" the vice-commander asked. "We're blind, deaf, and mute down here."

"Sure I could…" Cooper huffed out. "Just… Give me a second…"

"I'm linked up with the M.E.G.A.S. at the moment," Key supplied. "Its back at the base of the shaft. I had it follow just in case we needed to have some fists."

"I could… Wire the device remote link into from M.E.G.A.S. into Cherry and use it to broadcast on device channels at long range." Cooper's breathing was calming down. "Key's too small to have good range through this rock."

"I prefer the term 'compact' myself," Key quipped.

"Then get started ASAP," Martin instructed coldly. "Bloodberry, how do our gate crashers look?"

"They haven't breached security seal two yet," the AI responded with a smirk. "Looks like they wasted most of their momentum on the first seal."

"It's only a matter of time before they manage to get some explosives from D complex," Don grumbled.

It was as if someone had heard him when a deep rolling boom shook the control center.

"Security Seal Number two holding," Lime suddenly chimed in happily. "Plus I just found a way to reroute the grid and get power to our external cameras. That should help."

"How long do you think we can hold out in here?" Don asked.

Martin gave the Warrant Officer a stern look.

"Long enough." He quipped.

* * *

A few hundred meters above on the surface, a pair of yellow eyes appraised the latest attempt to breach the plate.

"So this is what Magic Forged Steel looks like…" Mr. Kage intoned quietly. "The kind of material you get when you put real motivation behind magic. Not bad."

Stepping through the pre-dawn darkness, he reached down and ran his hand across the scorched metal surface.

"Three times the density and weight, a dozen times stronger."

Standing back up, he turned to the other man accompanying him. In the dark, it was hard to determine who was who, but it was easy to read the agitation in the other man's voice.

"I still don't see why you're so interested in blasting through it though," he commented. "You can get some from the freight area or the test labs."

"I'm not," the mysterious masked man commented non-chalantly. "The command center has nothing of particular value to me. This endeavor merely acts as a means to apply pressure to the command staff. That I can embellish a few curiosities in the process is merely a bonus."

"Then you'd probably like the bonus in the test hangar better," the other man responded. "I saw project Lawmaker at work. I'm sure you'd love to get your hands on some of that technology."

"Indeed," Mr. Kage nodded. "Though it would be more the interest of one of my associates. However that is not the reason I'm here. How is the main event progressing?"

"You've got what you need," the other man replied. "It's already shipped out. I'd double check it all after letting your boys handle it though. It's precision equipment. What exactly are you planning?"

"Now that would be telling," Mr. Kage noted, turning away and walking towards a hole blown in the side of the building. Their improvised entrance.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you're preparing to start a war," the man asked. "But to what ends?"

Mr. Kage turned, his eyes almost seeming to glow in the dark.

"A history lesson, Mr. Logan," he commented. "A lesson older than the TSAB itself."

The logistics manager paused at the usage of his name, but brushed it aside.

"I was never too good with history," he responded.

"A pity," Mr. Kage continued, turning away once more. "It has been shown that those who fail to heed the warnings of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. The TSAB is no different than those societies that came before it. Al Hazred, the Belkens… None of them learned."

"So that means-" Logan began.

"I am going to be a Terrorist," Mr. Kage explained curtly. "I am going to be a TERRIFYING terrorist. In such a manner that even the most ignorant of fools in the bloated, corrupt Bureau will realize how badly they've failed. It will be grand, it will be showy, and it will be terrifying."

"That still doesn't tell me what you're up to," Logan responded coldly. "I'm risking everything just doing this."

"Do you how to keep a secret, Mr. Logan?"

The logistics manager almost started in surprise.

"Because I do," the terrorist leader continued seemingly off hand. "And if one wishes to keep a secret as such, the first rule is not to tell anyone. Would you not agree?"

Logan nodded, and despite the dark, it seemed the masked terrorist could see him as clear as day.

"So why would I tell you my aims and goals? A man who's not even sure if he wants to go along with this plan even though he's past the point of no return…."

There was no response.

"Mr. Logan, human beings are horribly ineffective at keeping secrets," Mr. Kage continued in a lecturing tone. "Most just lack enough discipline for it, preferring the attention they gain by telling others of their exploits or other bits of juicy grape vine gossip. Most of the rest are incapable of hiding any secrets. The human body can say more with the subtlest of actions than entire pages of masterfully scripted dialogue could ever portray. If I entrusted the secrets of my plans to everyone here… Not only would my plans collapse in their entirety, but it would be the hottest gossip on every world administered by the bureau for months."

Mr. Kage stepped out into the open and faced the east, where a slight early morning glow was beginning to bring a blue tinge to the horizon.

"Thus, you only learn what you need to know, what I deem I need to tell you. Every person here has instructions that simple. This is where you will be, this is what you will do, and this is how you will do it. You need know nothing more. That is what has kept this organization active despite the best efforts of the TSAB, and it is how it will continue to operate."

"They put an awful lot of faith in plans you won't even tell them about," Logan sniffed.

"Faith?" The terrorist leader turned and regarded him from behind the mask. "Mr. Logan, these men, each and every one of them, lost their 'faith' a long time ago. It is not faith that drives them; it is not trust that compels them to follow my words. They are not participating in this as a team effort any further than to spit on the TSAB. Their own goals and desires drive each and every one of these men. Some for profit, others out of spite or irrational prejudice… And some motivated simply because they see something they can do for themselves. They would do all this on their own if given the chance. I merely point each of them in a direction and set them to a particular task. And they get that task done of their own volition. What the task means in the big picture is of no concern. The fact that their seemingly random tasks happen according to my design is merely a bonus. These men, like you, are merely pawns. And they don't care."

There was a loud boom as another attempt to blast through the armor plate rattled up from inside the building.

"All of these men are more motivated than ninety percent of the entire TSAB, it's amazing. They have so much potential."

Then suddenly, Mr. Kage seemed to slouch, the sound of a sigh escaping his mask.

"It's a pity. They'll all be dead by noon."

"What?" Logan asked, getting nervous.

"You know quite well what I'm talking about," the terrorist leader waved a hand to the building glow in the eastern sky. "One does not strike the hornet's nest and expect to walk away unscathed. This attack was perfect. But by no means do I expect the advantage to last. Once the TSAB realizes the blow its been dealt here, the response will be brought upon this place as if a message from death itself. The pawns will have to be sacrificed for the sake of the mission."

"I don't like the idea of being 'sacrificed' myself," Logan commented dryly. "And I don't like being a pawn."

"Then take a couple Type IIIs and some of the other cannon fodder machines and look after that little pet project of yours," Mr. Kage nodded. "You should be ready to leave as soon as things start heating up. I trust that someone like you already has their escape route planned?"

"Yes," Logan nodded calmly. "I've already got a jump scripted out in-"

The masked man placed a hand in front of Logan's mouth, silencing the logistics manager before he could finish.

"Secrets…" he stated simply. "Are best kept that way."

Logan nodded.

"Go," Mr. Kage motioned. "I have business to attend to."

Logan turned, heading on foot towards the test hangar area. As he went, he activated the voice command on two large spherical gadget drones. Each three meters in diameter. They were remains of Jail Scagletti's previous attack, somehow scooped up by Sektor Twenty-one and seemingly modified. They seemed, smarter.

As he went, he shuddered. Mr. Kage was downright creepy. He was without a doubt, committing treason against the TSAB, and yet, following the masked man's instructions seemed like it was just the only logical thing to do. The terrorist leader seemed to reek of some kind of twisted wisdom. No wonder so many people followed him.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Logan turned to his own interests. Lawmaker. That technology would make him rich. Rich enough to offset the boring life of cataloging plastic tubes he was throwing away. He had to hurry.

Mr. Kage was right. They're coming.

* * *

"Cranagan Tower, Alpha Foxtrot One Five Delta with SCREAMER. Emergency takeoff runway three, departing west. Clear all traffic. Climbing to ten-thousand, expect heading two six five, transition supersonic."

"Roger that Alpha Foxtrot One Five Delta. Squawk: Zero, Zero, Zero, One. Cranagan Traffic: Traffic Alert: Aircraft is type AIR FORCE on takeoff. High-speed departure west. All aircraft on final go around. Hold at five thousand until cleared."

Mav hadn't even finished his call to the tower before the Deep Sky was on the runway and gaining speed. Not only cutting in front of several civilian craft holding short on the taxiway, but forcing several passenger aircraft on short finals to abort their landings.

While he'd seen the occasional dimensional cruiser. The traffic controller had never seen a military climb-out before, and thus, when the Deep Sky not only picked up off the runway, but immediately pitched back to forty degrees and thundered skyward. He couldn't help but lean towards the tower window with his mouth open. Seeing something that big move that nimbly just wasn't a regular thing.

Deep Sky was rocketing southeast at ten thousand doing Mach Four about a minute and a half later.

Roland scowled at the display repeatedly as he tried to raise the base, only to have a contact error message flash back at him as he did.

"Dammit!" he grumbled. "I had four redundancies in place in case this kind of thing happened. And they're all DOWN."

The satellite scans were not encouraging things. On top of the distinct communications blackout, there was something preventing a good clear scan from MIDSAT C. And the best he could get was thermal imaging photos since it was still dark at their destination.

"Let me have a crack at it," Fate hunched right over his shoulder and started tapping keys.

Roland had grabbed Fate, Nanoha, Signum, Vita, and Lynn on his way to Storm Raider prior to heading to the airport. Everyone else he ordered to stay put, gut feeling. Now packed into the aircraft, they all sat apprehensively in their barrier jackets as the general worked furiously to try and figure out what was going on. Crash sat between Vita and Lynn, his own foot tapping with impatience.

"AMF," Fate concluded with a scowl. "We should be getting ground returns or false returns from jamming interference or barriers. AMF nullifies magic. No magic means no scan returns, period."

"That leaves only two possibilities," Roland frowned. "And one's in prison which just leaves…"

"Sektor Twenty-One," Lynn finished in monotone.

"I already figured it was them," Roland nodded. "But this confirms it without a doubt."

"That's beyond bold," Vita growled. "It audacious! A power facility is one thing, but you've got a full scale military base with some of the highest security on the planet!"

"That shows a significantly higher level of capability in their forces than we previously thought," Nanoha postulated. "To think they'd have the ability to hit that hard is something I wouldn't have expected."

"It's an inside job," Roland interjected.

Everyone watched him expectantly.

"The fingerprints are all over it," he continued. "I had a high degree of communication redundancy in place. The fact that there was only a real short burst transmission means someone hit all four communications systems, including a hidden backup, near simultaneously. Nobody outside the base would know how many there were, let alone where they were. At least, not within the time frame this occurred in."

"So you think there's a mole on your base," Fate asked.

"No doubt about it," Roland nodded. "Who, is another question."

"Logan," Crash stated matter-of-factly.

"Pardon?" the general, asked.

"High level clearance," the test pilot began. "Unrestricted access. Tracks almost all the inventory. Knows all the security protocols backward and forwards, and nobody even gives even a second glance to what he's doing, and where he's doing it. The only people who know the base better are you, Fox, Don, Martin, and myself. Fox hangs around me too much. Don doesn't know the inventory since he yells at everyone else to bring what he needs. And Martin would be the one down in TICTOCC putting the distress signal out in the first place. That leaves Logan as the odd man out."

"Good Logic," the General nodded. "That's why you're my pilot."

"So what's our first order of business?" Nanoha asked, mind already on the tactical.

"Air superiority," Roland replied, bringing a briefing display up that showed the island chain. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they're after."

The display highlighted the two ammo dumps, the air base, and the test facilities.

"Even if we're compromised, that was part of one of my scenarios," he continued. "If there's any major security breach, the entirety of McGreggor is to go immediately into a level six lockdown. Anyone looking to attack would have to either bring an overwhelming army, which you can't exactly hide, or focus on breaching one particular target, which means at best token security elsewhere to prevent a counter attack. Which means they'll be vulnerable anywhere but their primary objective."

"You designed for failure," Lynn pointed out.

"Yes," Roland nodded. "The entire defense network is designed to fail in such a way that I already know everyone's move."

Roland selected the airbase and zoomed in.

"The priority attack after the communications system went down would be the air base. Nobody in the air... Nobody to put up a real fight. I expect all aircraft caught in the open to be a total loss. Depending on the swiftness of the attack, and the force level, the light hangars are gone, along with the half the training squadron. However, the armored hangars should still be intact, but sealed. AWACS may or may not be down, but we'll know when we get there."

Roland highlighted the airfield itself and marked the hangars.

"As such, after the initial attack, the token defense will be enough to keep pilots grounded. So breaking the air base defenses will be the first step. A low, fast southeast approach makes for a wonderful sweeping strike."

Roland pulled the display back and zoomed in on a facility labeled 'Teamwork Training Building D'.

"Once we've broken enemy hold on the air base, we can get any remaining assets airborne, and that's when we take the fight to objective two. C complex. I have a little something special stored in a building there that Logan wouldn't even know about. I guarantee even the best that Sektor Twenty-One has won't like this surprise. I can para-jump in during the approach to TICTOCC, at which point you'll begin an offensive and clear the test complex and hazardous materials bunker."

The screen panned to the main complex of buildings.

"The test hangar where EDI, as well as Fox's Arwing are stored are pretty robust, but chances are they're stuck too. EDI would be perfect for this scenario, so we need him, and if at all possible, FOX airborne as soon as possible. After that, we engage targets of opportunity based on threat level and clear the weapon storage bunkers. We strike hard, we gain momentum, and we don't stop until all the objectives are secure. That means we don't waste time with TSAB white glove policy. We're not asking anyone to surrender; we're not reading their rights. If you can't stop someone on the first try, you use lethal force. Do you ladies understand?"

General Roland looked around. Nanoha and Fate seemed a bit uneasy, Vita just scowled but showed no real signs of concern, and Signum masked her own thoughts as well as Lynn did. He decided to emphasize a point.

"They want the weapons!" he snapped. "NOTHING is to leave that island without my permission! They are not suspects. The moment they showed up on McGreggor they became ENEMIES. Their very presence on my facility is proof of guilt in a court of law. I know its not how you fight, but they won't be giving you the benefit of fair combat. If you don't do it, THEY will. Am I clear?"

There was muted acknowledgement from the group, but nothing near what he should have heard. That didn't bode well for them if they were too busy mulling over the potential consequences of ending a life. Especially if that was going to bug them in the middle of a battle… Where one hesitation would be catastrophic. This called for some old-fashioned army Drill Sergeant.

"I said, AM I CLEAR?!" he snapped suddenly, and absurdly loud.

"Yes sir!" Came a responsive snap from all present. About the only good piece of conditioning that came out of that thing the TSAB called cadet training. A nice strong bearing that overrode conscious thoughts with a simple, automatic response.

"I'm going to try raising the Tsunami again," Roland continued after a moment's silence. "It figures Admiral Mishima would have that thing in a Molniya Orbit of all things."

"It's the best orbit for the approach," Lynn supplied.

"He could have at least popped a transfer orbit into something more standard," Roland grumbled. "I'm no astrophysicist, but Geostationary Orbit is a little more convenient."

"Against naval procedure," Lynn shook her head. "The stationary target presented to a ground observer is considered too risky to be acceptable. That's why naval forces always seem to be early or late when they're on station. The most convenient orbit is also the most dangerous one."

Roland sighed. "Fair enough… Though some naval support would be nice to have. Naval sensors are far more powerful than anything the MIDSAT system has."

"It'll have to do," Fate shook her head. "Admiral Mishima no doubt knows what's going on. He'll get his ship on station."

Roland nodded in agreement before going back to hitting keys.

"I guess that's about the best a briefing we're going to get," he continued at length.

"So," Crash began. "What do we do now?"

Roland peeked past his console to notice that the test pilot's foot was tapping away, a mile a minute.

"We wait," the general instructed.

'THUMP' Crash's foot stopped with one solid tap.

"I hate waiting," he muttered.

"Me too," Vita growled quietly.

"Welcome to the military," Roland got back to work.

* * *

"UUUUGHHH!!!" Fox snarled as she paced through the test hangar for probably the hundredth time. "This is boring!"

"You need to be patient," EDI responded from nearby in his resonating artificial tone.

Fox, in her excitement to get to try out her new 'toy', had been at the test hangar early. Most would wonder who in their right mind would actually wake up at four-thirty in the morning for anything. But then again, most everyone on base got up at five-thirty anyway. What's an hour?

The AI plane mused to itself about that last rhetorical question. What is an hour? Sixty minutes… Three thousand, six hundred seconds… Two-hundred and sixteen thousand alternating current cycles from the backup generator… Or perhaps if you wanted to look at it from his own core clock speed, three hundred and twenty-four quintillion cycles in total.

Really, the perception of scale in time was something that the AI was all too accustomed to.

EDI, or in fact, any device AI could process entire fifty-year archives of data in the blink of an eye. And when you can process the entire criminal history of Sektor Twenty-One in the time it takes for a human nerve impulse to travel the length of the body, you find yourself with a lot of spare thinking time. An hour at his clock speed would be equal to an entire week to a human brain. That very important fact taught the AI that the passage of time was solely dependent on the perception of the observer, and that the world operated at a fixed speed regardless of his own clock.

Luckily... Whoever originally invented the Intelligent Device first, a name lost to history, had the sense to include variable clock speed standard in the concept. EDI in this case, had clocked himself back to human speed, almost two hundred times slower. Who wanted to spend a week inside an hour anyway?

"Patient?" Fox looked at the aircraft.

"Patient," the AI repeated. "I am sure that with the communications burst I detected, reinforcements are on the way.

"We've been stuck in here for an HOUR," she responded in a ranting tone, unaware that she'd hit upon the very subject the drone hunter had just been thinking about. "I'm bored, this is annoying... I have to PEE! Just, what exactly is going on anyway?"

"I am unsure of the current situation," EDI resonated. "The communications arrays were knocked out during the initial attack, the primary Abenobashi Air Defense Net and the link to MIDSATs A, B, and C are also down."

Fox threw her hands in the air as she spun away from the drone. "Some good you are!" After a few seconds she began to pace again, pausing only for a second as the front hangar door banged once more as the Sektor Twenty-One lackeys tried their best to bust the high security steel open.

"Would you like to do something about it then?" EDI asked. Fox paused, looking at the drone curiously.

"What?"

"The primary networks are down," he repeated. "However, I've been calculating the relay ranges on device communications while we waited, and it may be possible to do something about that."

"Like what?" she asked.

There was silence...

After a second, Fox started to turn away, but suddenly, a small hologram projector in EDI's cockpit flickered to life.

"ACCESSING... " Came the resonating tone once more. "DEVICE DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS DATA NET..."

[EDI... MADCAP]

Fox watched as the display began to flicker rapidly with a text based display of network information.

[EDI ACCESS CONFIRMATION, CONSTRUCT NETWORK]

[INTERNAL NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE]

[ACCESS GRID, RANGE 15 KM]

[SIGNAL BOUNCE, DEVICE CALL... ACCESS]

[SIGNAL RETURN, TRCRTE]

[SIGNAL: KEY]

[KEY, GRID ACCESS; SQUAWK EDI MADCAP]

[ACCEPTED]

[LINK ESTABLISHED, ACCESS LOCAL GRID]

[RANGE, 30 M]

[CHERRY, ACCESS PARAMETER 'MISO SOUP']

[ACCECPTED]

[SIGNAL BOUNCE, DEVICE CALL... ACCESS]

[SIGNAL RETURN, TRCRTE]

[SIGNAL: RHE]

[SQUAWK HANDSHAKE: EDI MADCAP]

[ACCEPTED]

[ACCESS LOCAL NET: ... ...]

[CONFIRMED]

[LOCAL NET: RAISING HEART DEEP SKY]

[ACCESS: DEEP SKY, LONG RANGE COMM]

[ACCEPTED]

[SIGNAL CONNECT, MIDSAT C]

[ACCESS GRANTED]

[NETWORK ESTABLISHED, INTEGRATING]

[EDI = KEY = CHERRY = RAISING HEART = DEEPSKY = MIDSAT C = MIDCHILDA DEFENSE NET]

[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]

[ESTABLISHING SERVER LINK]

[COMPLETE; BOUNCES: 5]

"I have integrated all networkable devices within range and established a battlenet," EDI finished.

* * *

In TICTOCC, there was an almost shocked squeak from Key.

"Hey!" the device squawked. "EDI just logged into my routing functions… Looks like Fox is okay and…"

"And what?" Martin asked.

"He wants tactical data," Cherry continued in her place. "He also found a way to link up with the Deep Sky… Implementing now."

* * *

Fox blinked a few times back in the hangar. "You did what?"

"I improvised," came the curt response. "A concept Crash had been utilizing during the field test two days ago. Would you like a situational report?"

"Ye- yeah."

Without hesitation, EDI's holographic projector flickered and displayed McGreggor Archipelago.

"The attack came rapidly in two waves," he began. "The first strike came internally as Sabotage when transport magic of unknown origins was detected near TICTOCC's surface facility. Shortly after that, the communications net went down, and a wide field AMF went up. One minute later, the second wave struck the Air base. Several air wings of modified gadget drone mechanisms established superiority over the airfield and shot any aircraft in the open, and used AMF projectors to disable airborne mages. All air wings are currently trapped in their hangars as we are. Surface facilities went into lockdown immediately, following the General's procedures. Shortly after, the main generators went down and observation was lost."

The hologram flitted over to the D complex. "The attack came simultaneously. According to visual scans by MIDSAT B-"

The image flicked to real-time photos of the McGreggor Archipelago, showing thermal images of the area, with excessive heat clusters around buildings Fox recognized from the air....

"-I would say it is highly probable that they are after the materials kept within the mass weapon storage bunkers, and all other objectives are secondary, thus why they have not performed more destructive means of disabling the base."

"We can't let them have what's in those bunkers!" Fox blurted out. "There's no telling what kind of damage they could do if they got away with all of that!"

"At their rate of work, they will be able to make off with more then thirty percent of the materials in the disposal bunker site, and will have managed to get ten percent of materials from the test facility bunker by the time reinforcements arrive."

Fox pounded the wall once.

"And we're just going to stand here and do nothing!" she shouted.

"That would be up to you," EDI continued. Fox looked at the drone confused.

"Explain you!"

"Successful launch of air-based counter attack would hamper their efforts greatly," he stated. "Full scale air intervention until reinforcements arrive would cost them in combat materials and manpower more than the value of the weapons they could gather from the storage bunkers."

"But you just said," Fox began, and took a deep breath. "All the air wing forces at the air base are stuck on the ground and unable to launch."

"Affirmative," EDI responded. "All Abenobashi Airforce Base aircraft and airborne mages for the McGreggor Archipelago are currently trapped on the ground."

"Then what good will an air strike do us?"

"The enemy has established an aerial blockade over the airforce base, and dedicated nearly all its airborne drone units to flying heavy cover," EDI paused. "If a strike were to come from outside their CAP, the resulting breach of activity would allow for air force deployment."

Fox froze.

"Wait, you mean..." she turned, looking at EDI, then her head drifted to her 'birthday gift.'

"You are currently the only ranking officer capable of taking an aircraft out at this time," EDI continued. "Whatever your decision, is my orders."

"There's no way," Fox began. "I haven't flown that yet..."

"You are a test pilot."

"I know, but I haven't even been taught how to START the thing..."

There was a pause, then EDI responded.

"Is that the only objection?"

"I really don't know how to start it yet," Fox stated. "Martin was supposed to run me through it when Roland and Crash got back."

"Then there is no problem," EDI responded. "I have downloaded all pertinent specifications to the FS-87 Arwing Space Superiority Fighter design from Cooper's database, and have already determined the starting procedure."

Fox couldn't help it. EDI was an exact copy of his fictional counterpart. She couldn't help but see him as the insubordinate rampaging AI jet depicted in that movie. But here he was, with calm, reasonable options and well thought out solutions.

"But how do we get out of there?" she asked. "There's got to be a bunch of guys on the other side of that door armed with all kinds of weapons, and I don't think they'll just let us open the door and wait around while you talk me through a checklist."

"I have a plan."

Somehow, that simple response from the AI seemed to inspire more optimism than she felt. Despite all the berating on Crash for being a coward, she felt powerless trapped in here. And it did scare her. But EDI's warm tone had kept her calm. With another glance at the door, she finally shook off the feelings and turned her ever-confident glare back to the fighter.

"Then let's do this."

"Affirmative," EDI responded. "Please board your craft and seal the cockpit. Overpressure will be a significant hazard."

* * *

In TICTOCC, Cherry raised her graphical representation of a hand over her mouth. "Oh my… I do believe he's going to do something, rather outside of procedure."

Martin opened his mouth to ask what, but Bloodberry beat him to it.

"Hey what's he planning?" she began. "Share some data will you?" Then, after less than two seconds her mouth dropped. "That's- Oh, I like this. I like this a lot."

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Lime jumped in. "Lemme see, lemme SEE!"

"Check it out," Bloodberry grinned, an invisible exchange seeming to occur and Lime's eyes too got very large.

"Cool!"

"Ladies," Martin nodded dryly. "For those of us who don't speak binary…"

"Oh, you'll like this," Key piped in. "Lime, I think camera four on test building two has a good view."

"Right!" The chirpy AI responded, and her face blinked out to be replaced by a view of the test hangar and its antagonists.

* * *

Back in the hangar, Fox dashed over to her triangular fighter, grabbing a boarding ladder as she went.

"I will provide cover during the start procedure," the AI continued as she crawled into the cockpit. "The controls are simple enough and logically placed for anyone familiar with the standard TSAB holographic console layout."

Fox nodded as she absentmindedly found the cockpit canopy hatch lever right where it belonged, shutting it and sealing herself into the fighter while snatching up the helmet that was conveniently laying across the console.

"Now how about some music?" EDI asked.

-CLICK!-

"- Stuck inside this lonely room again."

Fox froze as loud rock music blared over the climbing whine of EDI's MISSCRAMJETS...

That song... was he? He couldn't be... Did he know the IRONY of it? He had to!

"You're paranoid!"

* * *

Just outside the door, two men paused from their work, trying to bust the master lock on the main hangar door as they heard the sound echo straight through the metal.

"See vultures circling!"

"What the hell is going on in there?" one of them asked.

* * *

Fox watched as EDI rolled to alignment with the door lifting into a hover on his fans. Then his lower weapons bay snapped open, deploying his buster device.

"Firing lock cancelled, all safeties removed," the drone resonated. "Full power..."

The tip of the device flashed as an orb came to life. After a few seconds of gathering energy it seemed to compress in on itself, then expanded and flared. There was a loud crack as it fired a beam of energy right at the hangar door.

The two men on the other side instantly burst into flames before they even knew what hit them. Several Type I modified gadgets exploded as the entire area around the door became an inferno. Further back, the shock wave picked men right off their feet and threw them as far as thirty meters, some being crushed by drones that were likewise caught in the blast. Others faring only slightly better as they hit the ground amidst a rain of flaming shrapnel, screaming in pain, some on fire as flammable materials on their person reached flash-point.

* * *

Logan slid to a halt, almost getting knocked over by a type I drone that hadn't been prepared for him to stop.

"What the hell?!" he mouthed, gaping at the curling fireball casting its own glow in the predawn light. Something landed beside him. Turning to look, he had to immediately look away. Surely, surely he hadn't just seen a burnt and mangled arm…

Several drones shot past him along with a few of the men who were more or less hanging around buildings nearby to make sure nobody got out. What ever had just exploded in the test hangar definitely had their attention. Wait, there was only one thing in the test hangar that could do that. And it was designed explicitly to deal with…

"No…" he began. "No… I'm not going to be sacrificed like this!"

He almost panicked but managed to stay in control of himself, looking around franticly. Then he grabbed one of the guys heading towards the explosion.

"You!" he snapped. "Take me to the drone controller!"

The armed thug yanked himself free. "Are you crazy?" he asked. "Someone just blasted our guys! I'm going over there before the others get all the good kills."

"Wait!" Logan grabbed him again and spun him around.

"Listen bub," the guy began again, emphasizing with his pod-shaped weapon. "If you don't-" but was interrupted before he could continue.

"You can't kill what's coming out of that hangar," Logan snapped as fast as he could. "That little thing-" he indicated the weapon, "-wouldn't even put a scratch on it. But it will certainly smear you all over as easily as it just cooked your friend here."

Logan finished the statement by indicating the burnt limb lying nearby. He was banking on the fact that while these guys didn't care about being pawns, they still cared to stay alive to continue to be pawns. The thug looked back at the smoke column and then back at him.

"If you want to run straight to your death," he continued. "Be my guest, otherwise, take me to the damn drone controls!"

The man glanced one more time, but nodded.

* * *

Amidst the instantly created chaos, through a gaping hole in what was once the test hangar's heavy security doors, the MADCAP slowly floated into view on its VTOL thrusters, music still blaring at full volume.

"BURN BABY! BURRRN! STRUNG OUT ON A WIRE!"

After clearing the jagged entrance he had blown in the doors, EDI switched to the main thrusters with a loud crack and a roar, accelerating hard past the scrap metal and pulling back hard to climb into the sky.

Fox gaped at the burning ring that was the door, and the debris beyond. Okay, EDI had a little more punch than anyone had let on, but HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME! And just like the movie... Cooper's sense of humor rubbed off quite a bit on all his creations.

"Area clear for the moment," EDI suddenly resonated clearly over her headset. "Prepare for startup procedure checklist…"

"Roger," Fox stated, looking down at the controls. The layout seemed a little too simple for the fighter. Holographic interface, of course.

"First," EDI began. "Locate the master power console, it has solid state switches and will be on your left."

Fox looked around, then found it, noting small labels on the buttons and switches there.

"Got it."

"Checklist as follows..." he continued. "Internal power to enabled."

Fox flipped the large red switch; there was a beep and a hum around her as a sub-generator kicked on and began to spool up.

"Enabled."

"External Power to disabled,"

Fox hit the button next to it. There was a thump as a cord connecting the fighter to the test hangar wall came free.

"Disabled."

"Primary Weapons To Enabled"

Fox flipped the next switch; there was a beep and the light turned green.

"Enabled."

"Secondary weapons to Enabled and primed."

The light turned yellow as she flipped the switch only half way.

"Primed."

"Astrogation Systems to Enabled."

About four switches had to be flipped, but a satisfying green light blinked in front of her as she did so.

"Enabled."

"Life Support to Enabled."

"Enabled."

"Deflector Shields to Enabled and Primed."

This thing has DEFLECTOR SHIELDS?! Sweet…

"PRIMED"

Somewhere below and behind, something started to whine.

"Targeting systems to Enabled."

With the flick of a switch, the scanner lobes on each side lit up.

"Enabled."

"Alpha Interface to Enabled."

Fox pressed a button, and suddenly, the console lit up with more advanced holographic touch screens.

"Enabled."

"Beta Interface to Primed."

A click set the backup interface so it could take over if the primary failed.

"Primed"

"Twin Lasers to Enabled."

Fox found the controls on the holographic console, and quickly tapped arming commands. The screen highlighted the space frame and showed green indicators for the lasers.

"Enabled."

"Onboard AI to Primed."

"Primed."

"Star Flight Motion Enabled."

After several beeps, the system indicated that inertial damping systems were online.

"Enabled."

"Auto wing modes to primed."

Fox flipped a lever, the wings on each side swung out wide and locked into place.

"Primed."

"All Systems go."

Fox looked across her console, all green lights.

"Acknowledged," she mouthed. "All systems are go. Arwing is primed, and ready."

During the momentary silence, Fox tapped a few buttons and changed her configuration slightly, she was interrupted by a new, and seemingly familiar voice.

[ORDER OF THE SETUP WAS ACCEPTED]

Fox blinked, that sounded just like the Device Nanoha had. Cooper. The sly dog. Where did he find time to install that voice package?

"Main Engine Activation any time you're ready," EDI resonated. Fox looked down at the blinking green button in front of her. She pressed it, getting a brief beep from the console.

[MAIN SYSTEM: START UP]

The generator onboard started to whine as the engine warmed up.

Outside in the wreckage, those not outright killed in the blast from EDI's departure were just starting to pick themselves up, a few of them sporting nasty wounds, more running to assist. They all looked up at the hole in the hangar as a new sound started to emanate from the black depths.

[DRIVE IGNITION]

The main engine came online with a hiss, filling the cockpit with a low resonating thrum as the Arwing picked itself off its landing gear and retracted them. Fox angled herself towards the door

Outside, the suddenly loud thrumming of the sub-orbital drive instantly made all the Sektor Twenty-One agents who could still move turn and run, even as more devices moved to reinforce their position.

Fox looked down at the console as the last engine lights turned green.

[STANDBY... READY!]

"You may find the engine to be slightly temperamental," EDI advised. Fox simply grinned dangerously, and shoved her throttle control all the way forward.

Fox was unprepared for what happened next. The Arwing responded by hurling itself out of the hangar as if shot out of a cannon, breaking supersonic before it was ten meters into the open. Out of reflex, with so many buildings suddenly hurtling at her, she yanked back on the stick and shot into the sky.

If Fox had been unprepared, those on the ground couldn't even come close. The sonic boom from the starfighter's passing hurled the nearest enemies right off their feet, and the air burst from the flaring sub-orbital drive exaggerated the results, smashing the reinforcing drones easily.

Fox had the presence of mind to pull the throttle back gently as she shot above the first layer of clouds around six thousand feet up before leveling the fighter off.

"Holy," she gasped as the horizon returned to its normal upright position. "You weren't kidding!"

"The Arwing is essentially built as a frame around one of the spare sub-orbital drives the Deep Sky uses," EDI resonated. "For all intents and purposes, the fighter is ninety percent miniature TSAB cruiser thruster, and carry roughly sixty times more thrust power than myself."

Fox nodded, spotting EDI drifting in from altitude to form up on her wing as they shot northwards.

"Which means I can out-fly and out climb everything those drones have to offer."

"Affirmative," EDI resonated. Seemingly sounding pleased.

"Then let's go get them," Fox grinned a devil's grin. Come in HER house would they?

"Turn and engage on heading one, three, two," she ordered, suddenly becoming serious. "We'll hit them at full speed and break their formations up. That should buy Mouse Squadron enough time to get airborne."

"Affirmative," EDI responded. At the same moment, Fox rolled on her side and yanked back hard, breaking off her original course and bolting for Abenobashi Airforce Base, EDI replicated the movement with equal snap.

"Mess with the B.E.S.T." she began.

"Die like the rest," EDI responded.

Twin sonic booms thumped over the ocean.

* * *

"I've got telemetry," Bloodberry announced. "EDI's sensors are pretty damn good."

"I've got the Deep Sky," Cherry chimed in. "They're inbound, and they're bringing along half of Riot Force Six."

Martin's face hardened in determination as he went to work reading the information appearing on the screen.

"Bloodberry, build me a tactical map at once," he began.

"Yes sir."

"Cherry," he continued. "Get to work on that AMF field. I want that thing dissected. I want a countermeasure to AMF, an Anti, Anti-magilink field or something."

"Hard to do since it shows up as a void in magical sensors," she commented matter-of-factly.

"You'll think of something," Martin nodded.

"Oh! ME! ME!" Lime jumped in. "Give me something to do!"

Martin paused, looking at the center screen. Then one eyebrow shot up.

"Lime," he began. "Psychological Warfare."

* * *

The loud speaker outside one of the hangars at Abenobashi Airforce base came to life with a loud series of beeps at the same time as several others scattered around the area, startling the armed men who were standing watch.

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Lime's voice shouted out ever so chirpy. "Listen up all you pin headed terrorist guys! This is LIME! I'm the AI running things around here in case you didn't know! Listen up! I have an announcement to make! Are you listening? Good! I've been watching you all for a while now, and I can't help but notice all this pent up anger you all seem to have. According to my psychology database, this is bad for you. So I've arranged a little something to help lighten the mood! Are you ready? HERE GOES!"

What followed next was even louder than Lime, if at all possible. As from every speaker at once, a series of loud synthetic tones erupted, quickly turning into an insanely loud hyperactive house beat.

* * *

"That's- You're kidding…" Key intoned as the background behind Lime began to flash in time with the beat. Then with a giggle, the bubbly AI simply responded by putting her hands up on her head and began to sway her digital hips back and forth in a goofy dance.

"You're not kidding," Key's tone was now dripping with horror.

"That's Lime's favorite song," Bloodberry laughed.

* * *

__

Vi undrar är ni redo att vara med  
Armarna upp nu ska ni få se  
Kom igen  
Vem som helst kan vara med

"What the HELL!?" One of the thugs guarding a hangar yelled over the sound, backing away from the nearest loud speaker. "What the hell is that!?"

"Techno-pop?!" another replied with a shout.

__

Så rör på era fötter  
Oa-a-a  
Och vicka era höfter  
O-la-la-la  
Gör som vi  
Till denna melodi

"What the hell is that AI doing?" the guy Logan was following asked as they sprinted. "Is it insane?!"

"You wish!" Logan shouted over the din. "Hurry!"

* * *

"Okay!" Lime laughed on her screen. "Let's put some light on the subject!"

Around the air base, lights began to flick on and off. Within seconds the airfield looked like a giant dance floor covered in strobe lights. The seizure inducing light show quickly began to unnerve several of the guards, who began to jump in surprise whenever a new set of blinking lights they hadn't known about came on. In time with the chorus, the runway lights came on and started blinking in intricate patterns.

__

Dansa med oss  
Klappa era händer  
Gör som vi gör  
Ta några steg åt vänster  
Lyssna och lär  
Missa inte chansen  
Nu är vi här med  
Caramelldansen

"Fucking shit!" one thug shouted over the din. "Shut that damn thing up! Destroy the speakers! Destroy the lights! DESTROY EVERYTHING!"

They began to shoot at anything and everything that blinked, moved, or emitted noise. The sound of automatic weapons fire filled the air along with the sound of the music while muzzle flashes lit the early morning air.

"Hey!" Lime's voice cracked over a momentarily muted segment of the track. "That's not a very nice way to treat your host's stuff!"

"Shut up you bitch," one of the thugs snarled, and shot the nearest observation camera he could find. "And shut that crap off too!"

"If you don't want to play nice," Lime continued. "I guess I'll just have to let my friend EDI teach you not to break other people's things."

"Eddie?" he paused.

There was a blink of light out of the northwest. Catching it out of the corner of his eye, the man spun around to see what it was. Two seconds later, an orange beam of energy carved right through a drone not fifty meters away and obliterated it, along with about six others that got caught in the blast.

"What the?!" He gaped. "We had all the aircraft shut down… How-"

"Meet your worst nightmare you pin-headed terrorist thugs!" Lime chirped with a giggle. "He's lean, he's mean, and he's here to ruin your day! Let's hear it for my pal! The Magic Assisted Drone, Combat Assault Platform! EDI!"

Another orange beam ripped into another pack of drones, turning them into a cloud of scrap metal. The sound of the explosions drowned out the music the AI had been playing. With a roar of retros, EDI flared in and spun sideways, using his hover fans to control a sideways skid as he pumped a mixed pack of type I and II drones full of Cerberus fire before they could scatter. As soon as two exploded, he rolled, turned, and put himself back on course with a bust of engine power.

"Don't just stand there!" someone shouted. "Shoot it!"

Type I and II drones scattered in every direction. Many firing their thermal blaster weapons as EDI spiraled right through them. The thugs on the ground likewise opened up in futility with their pod shaped weapons, a few brief flickers of his barrier indicated otherwise ineffective hits.

"Enemy locations catalogued," the drone hunter resonated on his comm frequency. "Targets six through fourteen marked. Ground element distracted. I'm out east. Commence Hi-Low sweep."

Two Type II drones forming up on EDI exploded one after the other. Then a Type I near the ground along the same path, followed by one type III drone so close the shock wave threw the man off his feet and blew out his eardrums. Scrambling to right his spinning world, he pushed himself up just in time to see a pair of icy blue bolts rip from the darkness, zipping past to plunge into a trio of men trying to use another type III as protective cover, transforming it into a fireball.

Even with his ears out, he felt the pressure of the sonic boom as the second aircraft ripped by, curving sharply skyward as it swept over the runway with deadly elegance. The machine climbed for several seconds before seeming to slow to a halt in mid air, pitching backwards until it's nose was pointed at the airfield below. Then came the blue death once more. Twice a second, the bolts lanced into the fleeing enemy below even as the aircraft began to settle into a dive.

"Sweep complete," Fox indicated as she pushed the throttle forward, accelerating away from withering surface fire. "I'm out north east."

"I'm in south," EDI responded.

The orange beams came in from the south this time, seemingly smaller and in more shots than before. More Type I drones exploded as the last of the Type IIs cleared the area at full speed. EDI concentrated on clearing the leftover Type I and III units from the areas near the hangars.

Logan reached the object his guide indicated was the drone controller while another guy kept swearing up and down.

"What the hell is going on over there?" he smacked a machine a little larger than a dishwasher. "Thirty-seven units!"

"Can this control them directly," Logan inquired.

"Only one at a time," the man indicated the controls. "I just use it to give basic instruction codes."

"Good enough," the logistics manager pushed him aside. "Just tell me how to fly a Type II."

* * *

"Thirty seconds!" Mav called out.

At mach four point five, the Deep Sky was covering forty miles a minute as it approached the base. Roland had absolutely no intent of having the aerospacecraft slow down on approach when he needed to have mages in the fight immediately.

The general snapped a safety hook onto the bar near his head as he mashed the pressure equalization button at fifteen thousand feet.

"Devices Ready!" he snapped. "Barriers ready!"

When you're doing just short of hypersonic, the last thing you want to do is come out of the Deep Sky's slipstream without an active barrier. Hitting the slow moving air would be like slamming into a brick wall.

"Stand by!" he snapped again. Mashing the door button. The exit ramp opened with one last hiss of the remaining pressure equalization. The cabin then filled with a roar as the inside was exposed to the sound of hypersonic passage and quad plasma drives throttling back to idle.

"Ten seconds!" Mav snapped over the noise.

Crash counted down mentally and then watched as the general waved his hand.

Fate was first out, her barrier flaring to life as she leapt off the ramp. Followed by Nanoha, Signum, Vita, Lynn, and finally it was his turn, clanking forward and diving into the air stream.

The velocity difference was obvious as he dropped clear of the slipstream. The air slammed into his aerodynamics barrier, slowing him down dramatically as he oriented the armor in the direction of travel. Markers on his HUD blinked to life, pointing out the positions of the other five as they slipped from a fall into flight. Not having been thrown from the Deep Sky this time around, Crash followed suit, slipping into mach cruise mode as he did so.

"We're going to slow down and come around," Roland crackled over his headset. "I want the enemy element on the airfield completely neutralized before we do. Time is momentum! Go!"

"Roger!" Nanoha responded.

* * *

Mr. Kage paused and looked up as the sound of a loud double thump reached his ears. The masked terrorist calmly watched as the early morning light caught a glint off something moving incredibly fast high overhead.

"Sooner than I expected," he mused. "No matter…"

Turning, he walked to the entrance of the Seimei weapons bunker and tapped one of the men on the shoulder. When the thug realized who it was, he stiffened visibly but to his credit, remained grim faced.

"Prepare one more load," the masked man instructed casually. "After that, arm your men with the biggest weapons you can carry and prepare to welcome our opponents home. Our time is up."

"Got it," the thug nodded, then turned and began to shout instructions.

* * *

"Banshee One to Banshee Two," Crash crackled over the radio. "You okay Fox?"

Fox glanced at the console and pushed a frequency match button and assigned it as Comm Two.

"Banshee Two to Banshee One," she replied. "Affirmative, nothing a little creative destruction couldn't fix."

"Stars One to Banshee Two," Nanoha's voice joined in. "How bad do things look on the ground?"

"They've overrun the place," Fox responded. "I'm cleaning up the airfield as we speak."

"I'm out north," EDI's resonant tone interrupted. "Sixteen Type II drones have escaped to the west. Be advised that their performance is significantly superior to what records indicate."

"They must be smarter," Fate's voice crackled. "Don't let your guard down."

"Fox is in north," Fox interrupted, changing to her call sign. "I'm clearing hangar six, that should give Mouse unit their first opening."

She depressed the trigger on her control stick, firing the twin high-energy laser cannons on each side. Really, they technically weren't lasers, but rather fired directed energy bolts similar to some kind of contained blue plasma. But that made no difference to the enemy units she aimed at, a Type III drone that was firing back at her, along with the worthless automatic fire those thugs were trying to use. The bolts incinerated the immediate area around them and blew chunks of dirt and concrete into the air before everything was enveloped in a fireball.

It would have probably been a 'Squick!' moment for her if it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't really see what happened. Just the mere thought of what happened to them however made her almost feel sorry for them as she rolled right and banked off.

Almost…

"Fox out southwest," she advised.

* * *

On the ground, that one thug who'd first seen the initial attack from EDI was miraculously, still standing. It was probably his good fortune for being away from the drones, and not firing his own weapon. But in that short amount of time, he'd come to have a newfound respect for what his enemies were capable of. The main group he'd come in with, what was left of it anyway, was smoldering three hundred meters away. Now the dark arrowhead shaped fighter swooped by again, a series of orange homing rounds spreading out and destroying the remaining type I drones. What the hell were these monsters?

A hollow metallic boom alerted him to the fact his hearing was slowly recovering. The sound came from the nearby armored hangar he'd been guarding. The lock had opened, and the door was in the process of sliding clear.

Several security mages spilled out, pointing combat staves in both directions as they quickly assessed the immediate surroundings. One waved behind him and they all cleared the way as a high pitched engine whine split the morning air. A moment later, a small aircraft rolled into the open and began to taxi towards the runway. More of these attack aircraft?

The thug laughed unsteadily, catching the attention of the security mages, who immediately brandished their weapons at him. He continued to laugh as he leaned against the side of the hangar and slid down into a sitting position. After what he'd witnessed, he understood. This fight was over. The enemy had ambushed the ambushers, and decimated them.

Looking down, he had one last thought, they may win, but he wasn't going to some TSAB prison.

"Weapon down!" One of the security mages was in close now. If he decided to fire, the shot would easily penetrate the low AMF in the area at this range. When they finally got almost to arm's reach and inspected him. They found he was bleeding out the ears and nose.

"He's no threat," one commented, but kept his staff trained. "Remove his weapon. Secure him."

The lead mage moved forward while the second remained trained on him as a third moved to provide extra cover. The thug remained limp and stared straight ahead as the mage yanked his weapon free, grabbing it by the handle.

There was a piercing series of sharp beeps from the weapon that caught their attention.

"Fuck you," he smirked, and went out with a bang.

* * *

"Suicide bomber!" a new voice crackled over the radio. "This is mouse one, all pilots keep your head on a swivel!"

"Mouse One, Banshee One," Crash cut in. "Elaborate."

"I just rolled out of the hangar and my security detachment caught one of the survivors…" Mouse One crackled back. "They're probably all wired to blow if they can take out at least a mage in the process."

"They're known for trying to spit their last breath at you in protest," Lynn advised. "Don't give them a single chance to try anything.

"Just keep an eye out for any others and keep them away from the runway," Mouse One replied. "I'm taking off now."

"How many aircraft survived the attack?" Nanoha asked, watching a modified F-15 accelerate down the runway before pitching back into a steep climb.

"We've got six combat ready," Mouse One returned after a moment. "And I'd say fifteen others that weren't destroyed."

"That puts our attack strength at eight aircraft and six mages at the moment," Signum spoke up. "Now that surprise has worn off, it'll get more difficult."

"It'll be enough," Fox commented positively. "They're just thugs with drones, we're a trained group of ass kicking."

"They're SMART thugs with SMART drones," Vita snapped in. "Don't get cocky just because you have a fancy plane."

"Are you upset because I've got more enemy kills than you?" Fox responded playfully.

"Excuse me?!" Vita's tone indicated total outrage. "You little brat! Do you have any idea how many fights I've been-"

"Both of you shut up and get your heads in the game or I'll see to it you spend the rest of your respective careers in transportation as baggage handlers!"

That, could only be Martin. The second in command knew how to make a verbal entrance that could scare even Don.

"It's nice to hear your voice sir," Nanoha crackled. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're just peachy," the sub-commander replied caustically. "We had your devices feeding telemetry for a while now, but only just managed to get two way comms open. And what do I hear? Bullshitting in my airspace when we've got a battle to conduct… If mouse one is airborne, let him perform the mop up of the airfield. We've got bigger problems over here at C Complex."

"He's right," Roland crackled. "I'm coming around now, and I don't want to jump into that hot zone without cover."

"On our way," Fate responded.

* * *

Logan blinked several times as he ran over the process again. Flip the third switch, select a drone from the list, and get it's forward 'eye' view. Assign it to a list, and give it updates. Hit the second button from the left and get manual control.

The logistics commander was no pilot, but it was just a remote controlled plane. He had to keep them busy until he could make his getaway. He growled just thinking about it, but what would Roland do? The commander was brutal efficient. He always made noise about prioritizing the most important tasks over anything.

What was the most important task when you were fighting a highly organized opponent? Communications was out as best as he could do it, which meant the next thing was command and control, which meant.

"Decapitation strike," he muttered, selecting two drones. He fed them instructions to assist a third drone, which he then took direct control of with a flip of a switch. He watched the camera pitch slightly as its onboard computer relinquished control to him.

"Deep Sky, Deep Sky," he muttered as he scanned a sensor. "Take out the Deep Sky…"

There it was, sweeping in on C complex from the south. What's a type II got for armament? Logan scanned the inventory. AMF, thermal blasters, missiles… MISSILES!

* * *

"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

"Oh god MISSILE LOCK!" Mav snapped. This served little warning to Roland as he yanked the entire craft into a hard right roll, throwing the general around in the back from the sudden turn.

A second siren sounded even more shrill than the last, forcing Mav to reflexively lash out and strike a button.

"Hostile launch!" He shouted. "Popping flares!"

Deep Sky carved a turn through the air that seemed impossible for a vehicle that big. As it did so, the back began to spew brilliant motes of light one after the next until it seemed the aircraft was trailing Christmas lights.

* * *

"EDI!" Fox blurted out as she swung her fighter around.

"Three drones have detached from the retreating formation and have climbed to intercept the Deep Sky at two six zero," the drone hunter resonated. "The missile was fired from the lead craft."

'BOOM!'

Fox maxed the booster, causing her Arwing to leap forward through the air like a pouncing tiger, easily out pacing EDI and the others.

"EDI stay with her!" Crash ordered. "Don't let her do anything rash…"

"Affirmative," the AI responded, and kicked in his own boosters to give chase.

* * *

The Deep Sky flipped and carved another vicious S through the air. The drone launched missile having ignored the flares for the most part.

"Dammit!" Mav snarled as he watched the missile track. "Flares did nothing, it must have shape recognition guidance!"

Roland, trying his best to hold himself steady, snapped his head up.

"Thermal barrier to max, but don't count on it holding!" Mav commented, punching a few more flares.

"Hit the brakes!" Roland barked.

"WHAT?!" Mav shouted in confusion.

"Full brakes, wings out, roll ninety left and push the nose!" he barked. "Do it now!"

The pilot complied, hitting the spoilers on the Deep Sky as he cut the throttle. Then he slapped the wing control mechanism, causing the wings to sweep forward, reducing their speed even further.

Rolling the whole thing on its side, he pushed the stick all the way, causing the oversized machine to seemingly slide on a wing tip through the air as the whole thing stalled out.

"Now what?" Mav asked, the missile warning now mixed with the obnoxious sound of a stall alarm.

"GUN IT!" Roland snapped.

He needn't say it twice. The Sub-Orbital drives flared to life, emitting a burst of plasma that kicked the Deep Sky forward in a direction perpendicular to its original vector.

The missile shot right past the tail, a white trail in its wake as is continued to curve into the distance. A second later, a distant blue flash raced into it and it exploded harmlessly.

"Shape recognition hates variable geometry!" Roland explained to an unspoken question. "Combine that with a sharp lateral direction change for best effect! Just watch a few skirmishes next time you get the chance."

"Fox is in!" Fox snapped over the radio. "Three targets! Confirmed Type II drones!"

The Arwing flashed around after shooting down the missile and ripped by the Deep Sky, shots already lined up and firing.

"Shit!" Logan snapped in surprise, yanking his remote flight stick to the side. "What kind of fighter is that?"

The drone he was controlling rolled sideways in response to his command and dove away from the formation it was in just before a blue bolt from Fox's Arwing passed through the space it had vacated. The drone on the right however, was not so lucky as the second shot incinerated it instantly.

"Lead's breaking formation," she noted. "Pursuing… EDI, take the straggler."

"Affirmative," the AI resonated.

Fox rolled inverted and launched after the drone leader while EDI gave chase to the survivor.

"Crap, crap, CRAP!" Logan pulled on the stick watching the tiny camera view like he was playing a video game. "Where'd it go?"

Fox chased the drone through a dive before it curved sharply to the left, then the right. It was moving erratically, almost like it couldn't make up its mind.

"Drones always this jumpy?" she asked innocently.

"Where are you?!" Logan asked with a snarl, pulling up in the middle of a turn and activating the air brakes. "Come on…"

Fox snapped to the side and rolled in as the drone climbed and lost speed rapidly, craning her neck she watched the thing roll upside down and then try to drop behind her.

"That's got to be the ugliest High Speed Yo-Yo I've ever seen," she commented dryly.

"Got you!" Logan cheered to himself and pulled the trigger.

Fox yanked the stick one way and then pulled hard the opposite direction, watching her scope as the drone flinched one way then followed her with a sharp yank of its own that almost overshot, its weapon blazing haphazardly.

"EDI," she crackled. "Is it just me or is this drone sloppy?"

The Drone Hunter's target exploded violently as he curved out of a rolling scissors.

"The pattern of the drone you are engaged with indicates a response time of about one hundred and ninety four milliseconds," he resonated. "There is also a great deal of over-compensation in its maneuvers."

Fox cut her throttle and pulled back before twisting into a roll, evading more fire. The drone failed to even attempt to replicate the maneuver, and began to overshoot before it responded by braking.

"It also fails to recognize a basic air combat maneuver," EDI resonated as he swooped up behind them. "Characteristics indicative of an untrained human controlling it."

"Remote control," Fox glared, slamming her airbrakes while applying hard stick and rudder.

Her fighter shuddered as it turned on its side and snapped its nose in the air, seeming to slide sideways while losing speed. The drone overshot in a confused course as she completed the roll and let the nose drift down naturally. The brackets lined up as the thing began to roll in the direction it would have appeared she had gone. And a moment later, it vaporized.

* * *

"Fuck!" Logan yelped when the camera view suddenly went static. "What kind of move- Dammit! I'm not through yet!"

He went to work slapping more buttons.

* * *

"EDI," Fox snapped. "Find that drone controller. And jam it!"

"Already done," the AI responded. "However jamming is ill advised as it may render communications non-functional."

"Then we'll just hit it," Vita snapped over the comms. "I can do that."

"Stay alert!" Martin's voice crackled. "The drones have regrouped, they're climbing to intercept."

"Stars and Lightning have the air," Nanoha instructed. "Banshees Two and Three back us up."

"I'll take Banshee One, Hammer, and Knight," Lynn indicated, assigning Vita and Signum with arbitrary call signs. "We'll hit the controller and work our way from there."

"Now we're talking," Logan announced to nobody in general. If it was one thing he was good at, it was being able to catalogue things in a list. The flight of drones now under his command resembled the command screen for a real time strategy game. All he had to do now was pick his targets.

"Chew on this," he smirked.

* * *

'SKREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

"Oh, NOT AGAIN!" Mav complained as the missile warning went off once more.

"I count one shot, two, five," Fox began.

"Twenty-six," EDI resonated pointedly. "All aimed at the Deep Sky."

"I think someone wants to kill you sir," Mav laughed unsteadily, popping more flares.

"We'll soon take care of that!" Roland responded venomously from the back. "Are we over the island?"

"Yes sir!" Mav responded.

"Good!" the general snapped. "On my mark, fly ninety vertical, count to ten, then hit the burners and pressure seal. Don't stop until you hit angels one hundred. And then STAY up there!"

"You sound as if-"

"I'm stepping out for a bit," the general remarked. "READY?"

"Yes sir!"

"NOW!"

Mav pulled back hard on the stick, feeling his stomach twist as the Deep Sky pitched back like a fighter one quarter her size. The aerospacecraft creaked from the stress as of the sudden maneuver. Behind him, Mav heard the telltale click of a releasing safety hook and the sound of something sliding.

After silently counting to ten, he slammed the throttles all the way to max; feeling the satisfying thrum as the engines spooled up to full power and went into sub-orbital. With a roar, the vehicle began to accelerate like a rocket, vibrating intensely as it shot skyward. It took the pilot a moment, but he remembered to seal and pressurize the cabin.

The missiles, locked on to the Deep Sky as they were, curved up to try and keep pace. But now, running on full engine power, the transport easily out-climbed them.

"-BUSTERRRRRRRR!!!!"

The beam of angry pink energy ripped through the missiles a second later. The pressure wave created by its passing setting off their trigger mechanisms and creating a cloud of small explosions in its wake.

Nanoha dove head first into the fray, a barrier snapping up to protect her from the thermal bolts the drones trained on her. Picking a pair, she tore into them with a snap burst of her shooter spheres. The round pink bullets looking more like streaks as they tore away from Raising Heart. One drone snapped a roll and broke away hard and fast, the other wasn't quite so lucky as it got perforated and shredded by the attack, exploding harmlessly a second later.

A sharp yellow arc passing through another drone and slicing it in half indicated Fate's angle of attack as she too entered the furball. The drone flight broke formation, splitting into pairs to avoid getting caught in a group, forcing the two aces to split their attention and pursue in separate directions.

Immediately, those drones that weren't being directly attacked swept around on their flanks and began firing, forcing the two aces to curve and twist in a fashion rarely required of a combat mage.

"They're definitely smarter!" Fate snapped as she twisted past a bolt of energy.

"They're using improved wing tactics," Nanoha noted in response. "Four-pair and a trio."

"That makes it about even then!" Fox blurted out. "The tougher they are, the more satisfying the kill!"

Fox broke in from below, tailing a drone that was forcing Nanoha to redirect some attention to barrier upkeep. It split off the moment she did so, reshuffling with its partners so at least one of them could retain the advantage of position.

Now it was Fox's turn to fly defensive until Fate assisted by rotating in to chase the drone off her. Only to in turn have to go evasive a second later and get assisted by EDI.

This rotation continued in a blindingly fast display of aerobatics as the two groups battled for air superiority.

"Holy shit! They're good…" Logan spat as he worked the controls. His hands were flying fast now as he constantly reshuffled the attack priorities on the drones. They certainly performed better than he did, but their ability to recognize a threat was based on a reactive coding instead of a proactive coding. Meaning they wouldn't change tactics unless shot at, or instructed manually. This of course meant the logistics manager was constantly reassigning targets as fast as he could select drones to give instructions to.

"I didn't realize S ranks were THIS good." he continued, more to himself than anything.

"Two on me, going vertical!" Fox indicated as she got into a climbing fight with a group. "Stars break low right!"

Nanoha dove off to the side as EDI quickly moved to cover her flank to buy her a few spare seconds. Then she doubled back and checked above her. She found Fox right where she expected, diving back towards their level, still heavy two attackers.

"SHOOT!"

Fox broke right as soon as she saw the pink flash of light, unmasking her attackers behind as they turned to follow. A dozen bolts of energy slammed into one, ripping its frame apart before it could react. Not waiting for the drones to reshuffle, Fox immediately rolled in the opposite direction of the turn she'd begun and pulled back while cutting the throttle.

The drone found itself alone at exactly the wrong moment as it overshot its target. A condition Fox remedied half a second later with a snort of contempt.

"Splash two!" Nanoha indicated, already evading attack by more drones. "Nice execution!"

"Gah!" Logan snapped as he watched two drones disappear from the roster. "Let's try something new…"

"Drones are increasing AMF intensity," EDI resonated as Fate chased a pair off his tail. "If we continue this engagement at our current rate of attrition, I predict a twenty-seven percent increase in fatigue levels resulting in a fifty percent increase in the likely hood of a friendly casualty before the conclusion of the mission. More drones are also being routed to intercept, which further increases the probability of casualty."

"Then we need to get out of this mess and hit them decisively" Fate interjected.

"Blind them!" Nanoha snapped the order.

"EDI!" Fox snapped.

"IRON CURTAN."

'Pop.' The orange orb deployed.

EDI disengaged from he opponent, diving for the ocean below.

One became two…

Fox shot skyward, relying on engine power alone to out-climb everyone else.

Two became four…

Fate zipped in, grabbing Nanoha, and threw everything she had into speed.

All became chaos.

* * *

"Son of a bitch!!!" Logan jumped as his displays turned into so much noise. The thugs around him too jumped in surprise, but instead from the surprisingly loud sound generated despite the distance. They all looked in shock in the direction of the brilliant flash and the dull roar generated by the drone hunter's disorientation attack.

It was probably a good thing they did that too…

It gave them just enough time to acknowledge the existence of Graf Eisen right before it disassembled the control unit in one strike.

Vita was the first on the ground, charging in swinging with Graf Eisen like a rampaging bull in a china shop. It was only so much Logan could do to throw himself backwards at the very last moment to avoid things far worse than a concussion as the miniature knight went right to work with her trade skill.

Smashing.

Men and drones scattered at the sight of the Hammer Knight's rampage. Two Type Is on guard were crushed by the wild swings as they turned to deal with her, pieces of them raining down on the logistics manager.

"Kill her!" Someone shouted.

The thugs responded fast enough. Vita, being a melee weapon user, presented her attackers with a minor tactical illusion that aided in their confidence… They had range, she didn't. The thug that had escorted Logan here spun with a howl and opened fire with his weapon, peppering Vita with a hail of bullets.

Vita responded with a rage filled sneer as she hurled up a tri-form barrier before making an air-dash towards him, swinging Graf Eisen around low. The unfortunate thug did his best to backpedal as he continued to try and take her down.

Vita swung up, connecting with the man in the ribs and catapulting him high into the air over her head, where he smashed into a wall and dropped to the ground motionless. Logan scrambled away as fast as he could on all fours as more men and drones charged into the fray.

"SHOOT HER!"

Vita ducked as something white shot past her ear, flash freezing a drone in place conveniently enough to allow her to shatter it with untold ease.

"Damn you!" she snarled, realizing what that attack would mean if it hit. Always getting herself surrounded too fast. Vita wanted to kick herself for doing that, AGAIN as a type III launched an all out attack with its manipulation cables.

'BOOM!'

It exploded spectacularly as Lynn bisected it with Waldron, sweeping into a wide swing that caught a type one and smashed its casing open, but not before it could take a potshot at her.

The prickling on the back of her neck warned her something was coming. She immediately planted her foot and blurred from sight as what appeared to be a bolt of lightning snapped from the weapon of one of the thugs, catching the exposed circuits of the drone she'd attacked and frying it instantly.

"Dammit!" he snarled while trying to track the blur as it reconciled a dozen meters away. "Die you bi-"

He didn't finish as his leg suddenly yanked out from under him, Levantine's whip-like blade wrapped around it and pulled taught as Signum whipped him into the air. With a curving snap she hurled the man bodily into a drone, damaging it beyond functionality and breaking his arm in the process.

"Not to the likes of you," she commented offhandedly, then retracted Levantine and parried an attack from another type I drone.

The thugs learned quickly after the initial brutality of the assault and started firing from around corners while the drones closed to engage. Vita snarled viciously as she threw half a dozen metal orbs into the air and launched them with a metallic crack from Graf Eisen.

[SWALLOW FLIER]

The attack smashed right through four drones at once, ripping their insides out and destroying them instantly.

Logan scrambled for cover as fast as he could, terrified that at any instant that walking blender with a war hammer would find him and end his life instantly.

Glancing over his shoulder with a jump as Vita turned another type I drone into scrap metal, he pushed himself up and made to sprint, but stopped short when he bounced off something large and solid.

"Logan!"

The logistics manager looked up in fear as he recognized the voice, even as an armored hand reached down and hauled him up by the lapel of his shirt.

"What the hell have you DONE?" the pilot snarled through his helmet. "You're putting deadly equipment into the hands of psychopaths!"

"You're the one who's psycho!" Logan yelped in fear. "Let me go before that crazy hammer bitch gets to me!"

"She's the least of your worries," Crash responded, pulling the smaller man right up to his visor. "I should take you up to the stratosphere and just let you drop for this!"

"Now's not the time!" Vita snarled as she ducked an invisible attack that had scorched her hair.

At the same time, Logan cocked his head slightly and looked past the pilot.

"Get him!" he snapped.

"Bastard!" Crash snarled, spinning around. The thug behind him raised his pod-like weapon and depressed the trigger. The pilot threw the traitorous logistics manager to the side in response as a superheated burst of flames spouted forth at him, causing the pilot to protect his face in reflex.

"Flame thrower!" Lynn noted quickly.

"As hot as a plasma attack," Signum nodded, stabbing through a drone.

Logan screamed in abject terror as he tumbled end over end through the air, certain he was going to break his neck, only to come crashing to a halt in the branches of a tree.

"Lucky…" he sighed, right before the branch started to crack. "Dammit!"

"Burn you demon!" The thug snarled as he walked towards the enveloped pilot. "Burn in hell!"

Crash snarled in rage as he watched the temperature gauge on his HUD appear and start climbing rapidly. The pilot stepped into the inferno, reaching out and swatting the weapon to the side, surprising his attacker.

With another step, Crash swiped again, backhanding the individual across the jaw with a loud crack. The man spun in place and went down in a heap, his weapon cutting off abruptly.

"Dammit!" he snapped, breathing hard and looking down. "That's what you get for-"

He noticed the man he'd just struck wasn't moving, and froze. His head was twisted an odd angle. Crash began to breathe heavily, and took a step back. Obviously that last move had snapped his neck. That wasn't his intent, he was just… Aw man.

"I…" he began, his breathing quickly approaching hyperventilation. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Crap!" Vita swore, splitting her attention between the pilot and four drones. "He just killed someone!"

"Shit!" Lynn replied, leaping right over a drone to avoid its attack. "He's been terrified of doing that!"

"If he freezes up he'll be a liability to the mission!" Signum advised. And as if she were predicting the future, several of the drones seemed to notice the pilot's inactivity and made to capitalize on it.

"Dammit! Not now!" Vita shouted as she moved to intercept. "Crash! You're a sitting duck! Move it!"

Crash barely heard Vita over his on hyperventilating. But he did notice the attacking drones, especially the large Type III that was bearing down on him. In a mild state of mental panic, he backpedaled away from the attacker, but didn't really process the threat it presented with two, ten-meter long manipulators and three heavy thermal blasters.

[DANGER!]

Battery joined the chorus next, making things worse by announcing the problem. Still, he just killed a man… How could he-

"DON'T THINK!"

Lynn's voice was like a bucket of cold water to the face as she barked the order right into his headset.

"JUST DO!"

'Don't think, do.' His mind locked onto that simple phrase, drowning out every other errant thought instantly. Everything seemed to click right into place, the world seeming to slow to a crawl. He could hear his own heartbeat as his mind snapped into perfect focus. A three-meter wide drone was attacking with a foot wide metal tentacle as if it were a massive whip in an overhead motion.

Don't think about what it might do to you...

Crash twirled inside, stepping just clear where the thing would come down.

Just do something about it.

His arm rotated inside as the manipulator came down. It barely missed by inches.

Don't think about what the rest of the drone's weapons were doing.

Crash's arm continued to circle around on the same motion, catching the manipulator as it bounced off the ground.

Just prevent them from being used.

He spun into the manipulator, grabbing it with the other arm and giving a firm yank. The entire drone was pulled towards him.

Don't think about how big it is!

Crash let go and pivoted on his foot.

Just exploit it!

The pilot whipped his arm around, hand open.

Don't think about the battle!

His hand snapped forward, plunging right threw the middle 'eye' of the drone as it was warming up to fire a thermal shot. The armored fist went through it like paper machete.

Just win!

His hand wrapped around something cylindrical and solid.

Don't think about being a test pilot.

Crash yanked the item free of the drone in one swift stroke. It seized up as he spilled its electronic guts.

"Just break it." His eyes narrowed as the drone collapsed to the ground and went limp as he tossed a sparking power core and its torn cables aside. The world seemed to return to something resembling normal time from his perspective as that last line of thought ran through his head. Battle is all about breaking things. He was a test pilot. What do test pilots do?

Crash fished the MFR off his shoulder, switching it over to thermal rounds as he scanned his targeting brackets on the HUD.

He picked out two fighting Vita, one on Lynn, and three on Signum as he brought the weapon around in a sweep.

* * *

A type one gadget drone, or Type I, is an ovoid machine roughly one meter high, one meter long, and half a meter wide. As it is built for cheap mass production and was considered expendable by its creator, Dr. Jail Scagletti. It is mounted in a light polycarbonate shell with a half-inch aluminum casing.

Aluminum melts at roughly one thousand, two hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and boils at roughly four thousand, five hundred and sixty six degrees. The average thermal round fired from the multi-form rifle in contrast, is a packet of magically contained energy about an eighth of an inch in diameter, one inch long, and is roughly four thousand, eight hundred degrees.

It is thus interesting to note that while a thermal round is almost completely absorbed and dispersed by any magical defense with little more than minor singes caused by bleed through… Impact against unprotected materials results in almost instant melting and vaporization of the impact point, aggravated by the explosive expansion of gas that would go along with it.

So it is of little surprise that against just about any type of drone, the MFR's thermal round would be capable of instantly blowing a hole almost right through it, much the same way the six rounds Crash fired each blew the tops right off the drones attacking his allies.

For just a few seconds, everyone, including enemies, simply stared at the pilot in surprise.

"Did my eyes deceive me?" Signum asked with a sardonic smile. "Or did a C rank mage just destroy seven gadget drones in five seconds?"

That comment seemed to have an effect on the remaining thugs, who started to backpedal away, ducking behind drones that had yet to actually enter into the fight itself.

Logan managed to free himself from his tree as the branch snapped, causing the logistics manager to hit the ground with a thump. Wasting no time, he quickly tore around a corner.

"You okay?" Lynn asked, noting the distance their enemies were giving them.

Crash took a deep breath as he lowered the MFR. Took one look at the corpse, and looked away.

"I've been better," he shook his head.

"It happens," Lynn stated curtly. "Combat is like this."

"Yeah I know," Crash turned his helmet to one of the drones. "People, breaking things and each other."

He noted the lack of attack coming from those who remained to confront them.

"I think we made an impression on them," he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Vita frowned and gave an extra swing to smash the already destroyed remains of the drone she'd been fighting, and noted how much the thugs flinched at the sound.

"Heh, they're trying to put up a tough front, but they're obviously scared half to death. Rookies."

"Almost," Crash commented off hand. "They're trying to focus a lot of portable AMF units at the moment."

"How do you know?" Lynn took up a fighting stance.

"Count's been climbing since they backed off," the pilot tapped his visor. "I don't think they realize how ineffective it is against our level of power."

To emphasize, Crash raised the MFR and aimed at one of the drones standing off from them. A moment later, a thermal round went right through its 'eye' and blew the back out. Seeing how easily that occurred, the remaining thugs cleared out, their drones falling back a moment later to protect them.

"Where's Logan?" The pilot continued after a moment. "I have a bone to pick with him."

"I saw him over by that tree a minute ago," Vita pointed with her war hammer. "You pitched him when you got jumped."

"What kind of weapon is that anyway?" Signum indicated the pod-shaped weapon laying along side the corpse of the fallen enemy combatant. "I don't recognize the design and it was easily capable of matching a plasma attack."

"I don't know," Crash began, walking over. "Looks like a combination assault weapon."

He reached down and picked it up by the main body.

"It's got a series of barrels that look like they do different things," he continued, rotating it in his grasp. "Modular…" He noted a button on the bottom. "Lots of odds and ends…"

Crash rotated the weapon and slipped his hand around the handle.

"Professionally designed gr-"

The weapon let out an ear-splitting shriek.

"Oh SHI-" he began, flinging his arm and launching the weapon from his grip. It exploded a moment later, knocking him flat on his back and raining debris on the others. After a few seconds, the cloud settled.

"State of the art anti-theft device," he concluded, sitting up. "Whatever you do, don't touch the handle."

* * *

Martin pressed a button and saved the image of the weapon displayed from Crash's HUD.

"We have our suicide weapon," he noted. "Lime, inform the rest of the forces."

"Got it," the AI nodded, blinking out.

Pressing another button he took a look at the air battle.

"Takamachi," he began. "Status."

"Things eased up after ground team took out the controller," Nanoha noted. "They're still troublesome, but nowhere near as organized. We should have this wrapped up in ten minutes."

"We're almost wrapped up here too," Mouse One reported in. "I can route to engage enemy air as soon as you're ready."

"It's messy, but it's a route," Signum continued next. "We'll have the test area bunker cleared in no time."

"Right," Martin nodded. "Then I want someone over on D complex NOW! We need to clear them out."

"Already on it," Fate crackled. "I'll be there in thirty seconds."

"I'm going after Logan," Crash crackled in. "He started this mess, he's going to answer for it."

"Find and take out any portable AMF generators while you're at it," Vita responded.

Don opened his mouth, but didn't so much as get a word out before a strange rumbling vibration shivered down the walls of the command center.

"What the hell was that?" Vita crackled.

"That came from the southeast!" Lynn responded instantly.

"Sounded like an explosion," Crash crackled.

There was a squealing crackle of static on the line. It took a few seconds before it resolved into the sound of a loud whine and someone talking.

"Hello? Is this thing on?" It was Roland. "Testing, testing."

"We hear you," Martin indicated, frowning at the high static whine. "You're not exactly clear though."

"You get used to it," Roland commented dryly.

"What was that sound?" Signum asked. "We heard an explosion."

"That's just me," the general crackled back. "I introduced a few pinheads to the concept of democracy. They were out-voted a hundred and twenty to seven. How's the mess?"

"Manageable," Martin responded. "Surprisingly good shape for the attack."

"Then mop up these punks," Roland crackled. "Their game is over."

* * *

Fate touched down at the entrance to the disposal facility, several of the Sector Twenty-One 'peons' as she had come to think of them scattering away from her as she blasted at them with a weak attack. She could see several more guarding a hover-sled covered in various explosives equipment sitting in the middle of a pre-prepared magic transport circle. Strange they were using high level magics when they claimed to hate magic. But now wasn't the time to think about that. She needed to stop them before they stole more of the quarantined materials.

"I'm on site," she commented. "Looks like your predictions were right…"

"Nothing leaves," Roland crackled back.

With a snap, Bardiche bit into a cartridge, her arm coming back as the axe-like head rocked back, igniting a blade of plasma.

[ARC SABER]

And with a swing, she hurled her boomerang of plasma at the sled...

'BAM!'

…And a hexagonal green barrier flashed, scattering the attack.

Fate quickly tried to figure out where it came from, and for the first time, noticed the figure in the flowing cloak and mask just opposite her side of the sled. His hand was extended, glowing. After a few seconds, he lowered it. Around her, the various thugs and a few more fanatical looking followers seemed to gain a new sense of courage. On that reaction alone, Fate realized this may be their trump card for this operation. If she took him down, the rest would probably flee or surrender. At the very least, he intended to run interference.

The masked man seemed to regard her silently as his followers tightened the ring around her slowly, automatic weapons raising unsteadily. Then he raised a hand. They all looked up at him as he signaled for them to back away. Grudgingly, they did so. And then he floated up over the top of the sled, as if simply standing on the air. No wasted movement at all. Coming to a rest on the ground a few meters away, Fate took a moment to study him some more.

Wrap around green cloak with a purple robe beneath it, a mask disturbingly similar to one a pair of familiars had used years ago, but with a single teardrop coming off the corner of the left eye. Almost like a cleric. It was most certainly a style of barrier jacket, and had blue orbs at the shoulders and on the cloak's tie off.

"Keep prepping the sled," she heard one of them say. "He'll handle her..."

Handle her? That arrogant tone meant trouble.

"I think I just hit a snag," she indicated on the comm. "This guy doesn't look like your average thug."

The man held out his hand, palm up as if accepting change. There was a glow, and a small green orb appeared in his outstretched hand. With a flick, he twisted his wrist around and grabbed the orb. There was a flash and the green ball elongated in his grasp and took shape, becoming a glowing green broadsword. Fate tightened her grip on Bardiche. Whoever this was, they were far too calm.

With another flick of the wrist, the glowing blade arced, slashing down to a low position, as he seemed to challenge her to advance. Very well…

[SONIC MOVE!]

Fate made the first move, but was surprised when he met her in mid air. Batting aside Bardiche with only one hand while shifting and floating back, he parried her first and second strikes, then slashed with the blade, forcing her to swing Bardiche around rapidly. He continued to maintain a vertical position, as if the air itself was as solid as the ground they had started on. Pressing the attack further, his sword arm curled up near his neck, and he let go with a stronger swing, forcing her to duck back, skidding across the ground slightly.

Parrying his follow up, she jabbed with the head of Bardiche, hitting nothing but air as he suddenly zipped upwards and back in an arc, his body movements betraying none of his flight motion intents.

Pushing back towards him, she continued impossibly find nothing but air as he evaded a vicious combo of swipes from Bardiche, only the last blow managed to hit anything, and it was merely a parry from the sword, which the masked man used to propel himself backwards.

Gripping his sword with both hands, he rebounded almost immediately, hurling himself full force into Fate's half-prepared block. Fate stumbled back and pushed off into the air rather than fall flat on her back. He drove into her with ferocity forcing her to give up ground... or air to the flurry of sword strokes.

Then Fate suddenly realized the sword techniques coming at her were strikingly similar to ones Signum used. Adjusting accordingly, she quickly found a hole she'd often use to exploit Signum's defenses and drove back on the offensive. The masked man quickly shifted back again... Without a scabbard like Signum had, she knew exactly where to strike. Vanishing in a blur, Fate went for the opening, Bardiche kicked off a puff of smoke as it bit into a cartridge, igniting its scythe blade as she came out of her dash in a blind spot. And gave a swing.

'CLANG!'

"WHAT?!"

The man's back was still turned, but a green blade had interposed itself between Bardiche and his open flank. Tracing it, she discovered it came from his other hand. This would produce exactly the same opening as-

'BAM!'

Fate winced as she went through a couple of trees. She remembered now, Signum hesitated in that fight.

* * *

Roaring overhead at high speed, Fox saw the exchange from the cockpit of her Arwing. Breaking pursuit of a couple of modified Type IIs, she banked around, spotting the transport circle glowing slightly on the ground.

"Hey guys!" she snapped over the communication lines. "Looks like Lightning ran into some kind of trouble over here at Seimei... Some dude with a green sword just got into it with her, and he's holding her off."

"That's a joke..." Crash began. "Right?"

"Not from what I'm seeing," Fox retorted. "Looks like they've also got transport magic up and a loaded hover-sled. The next inspection won't turn out too well if those are missing... WHOA! Did he just put her through trees like that?!"

"Who's closest to D complex?" Roland's voice squealed through static. "Get over there and back Testarossa up!"

"I'm already on my way," Signum's voice crackled in.

"Those two are on you Fox!" Martin's voice suddenly interrupted her view of the fight. "Do a barrel roll!"

Fox resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she yanked the flight stick hard to the side and then back, sending the Arwing into a corkscrew as the whole thing tried to 'climb' while spinning. And not a moment too soon as a stream of bluish bolts shot through the air where she'd previously been.

* * *

Fate managed to regain her wits just as she saw the green bolt coming in at her. Rolling off her arm and to the right, the bolt slammed into the ground, igniting some of the grass and kicking up a cloud of dust. She managed to scramble to her feet and duck past a tree trunk as another one whipped past her face, exploding bark off a tree further behind her. Preparing a shield and risking a glance, she spotted the masked man floating towards her while hurling the green bolts like daggers.

She ducked back as this time four were fired at her, one bouncing off the shield and the other just barely missing her legs. The man hopped into the air and hurtled at her, reaching back and then swinging, his sword igniting to life again as he aimed for her head.

Fate jumped away and took flight as the blade went right through the tree, cutting it down in a single swipe. Dropping to the ground and dashing sideways to avoid some of the falling branches, she swung Bardiche to block as the man closed the gap. After a few seconds, and more falling trees, Fate realized the constricted space was putting her at a disadvantage, parried a blow, and leapt upwards… only to be caught by the foot. It was a mistake she knew she shouldn't have made in her haste, leaving herself open like that, but her auto guard took care of the impact when he swung her around into a tree, and then threw her back into the open.

[EXPLOSION!]

The man jumped back into the clearing of collapsed trees without so much as looking up as the flaming blade of Levantin slashed where his head had been, creating a guard as Signum planted her feet and came around with a brutal horizontal slash. The masked man quickly parried the blow as he jumped further back, then slapped down on her swing, smacking the sword into the dirt and igniting a blade with his other hand. Signum reacted quickly, having so many practice fights with Fate to be used to such speed and aggression, and quickly whipped her scabbard up to block.

What came next was a total surprise, as the man used the blade to rebound his momentum and spun around in a whirl of cape, leaving Signum shocked as the back of his boot connected squarely with her jaw. It didn't hurt very much, but left her off balance as he opened his hand and shoved his palm into her stomach. There was a green flash on red as her auto guard protected her from the point blank blast, and was hurled several meters backwards to crash directly into Fate.

Both went down in a heap.

"He seems to fight very well," Fate stated, her head somehow stuck between Signum's thighs in their tangled mass of limbs.

"He's definitely no amateur," the Knight concurred, rolling back off Fate and regaining her feet. As she did so, she looked up, and immediately froze.

The masked man crossed his arms in front of his body, eight green dagger-like blades between his fingers. With a snap of his arms outwards, he hurled the cluster of energy blades directly at the duo.

Signum pushed Fate to the side and then dove the opposite direction as they shredded through the spot they'd occupied. As soon as they gained bearings, they bounded as one in a pincer move towards the man. Who in turn brought his hands together and his sword became a single long rod, which he quickly began to twirl in a defensive motion to block multiple attempted slashes from the two mages.

As he maintained position to keep them both on the same side, he retreated back slightly. Then suddenly, ducked under one swing, half his blade vanishing from sight, allowing Levantin to swing uselessly through empty space as he elbow-checked Signum in the abdomen and formed a small dagger in his empty hand to slash at Fate's face.

Stepping back from his strike, he struck Signum with his return stroke, who had reacted to the gut-strike by hunching slightly, square in the back. Signum slammed face first into the ground with a loud thud as the man reformed his Bo staff-like blade and piled into Fate.

Backpedaling quickly away from the twirling fury of green, Fate tried her best to keep the masked man's eyes on her by probing a little more aggressively between parries, if only to draw him away from Signum long enough to recover.

"SHOOOOOOT!"

On the telepathic command to 'MOVE!' Fate used a backward leap to hit the skies as Nanoha joined the fray with a Shooter attack. The man shot after her and charged right into the magical attacks, swinging at the shots as they homed in on him. His weapon changed from thin bar into something more akin to a tennis racquet as he did so.

Nanoha dove to the side as one of her own shots was sent right back at her before she could will it away. Below her, the man created an arm length shield over his free arm and began to return her 'serve'. Either defending against shots with the shield, or actively swatting the attacks away with his racquet. Fate was forced to dodge a few that seemed actually aimed at her.

* * *

"Stars has engaged the target," Martin's voice crackled over the commlink. "This guy's still going though. I want someone else in there, and I want them in there right now!"

"I'll mop up my area and move to assist as soon as possible," Lynn snapped in response. "These guys are pushovers, but there's a lot of them."

* * *

Signum regained her feet and shook her dizziness off. Those last two blows were even more surprising and she made note to keep an eye out for such a trick again. Turning to the fight, she saw Nanoha dropping back and firing on him once more as Fate tried to position herself for a better blow. Her eyes Narrowed.

'CRACK!'

[SNAKE FORM!]

Levantine's blade came apart into links as she whipped it up and gave it a twirl, turning it into a ribbon of blades as she crouched and then sprung upwards, taking off into the sky.

The masked man parried back another blow from the twenty or so shots Nanoha now had in the air, trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers as her attack whipped around him like a swarm of angry wasps. When he noticed Signum charging up to meet him, he changed direction, heading straight for her. Almost immediately, Nanoha's attacks clustered up and shot towards his back.

Thinking ahead a few seconds, Nanoha recognized a lead into a friendly-fire shot and prepared to will her attack out in a split second. Signum seemed to the think the same thing, as she whipped Levantin out and shot sideways, trying to smack the man with the elongated blade whip. Instead of dodging it, he suddenly reached out, his blade condensing into a green glow around his hand as he grabbed hold of Levantin and gave a yank. Not to fall for such a simple whip counter, Signum leveled her strength in a massive heave. Only instead of being flung off, the man stayed along for the ride of his life as Levantine curled up and cracked madly. Then at just the right moment, he gave another tug and snapped off in what seemed to be a random direction as if swinging from a vine, just missing Nanoha's cloud of shooter spheres, which had to do a one-eighty to continue the chase.

Using the extra momentum, the man shot towards Fate, catching her just slightly off guard, as his 'weapon' became a lance. She dove out of the way as he hurled it mid-flight and spun quickly to counter as he came in on her face first with an axe this time, emitting a loud clang as it slammed into Bardiche. Pitching backwards from the momentum, they quickly came close to getting tangled up in each other's limbs as he leveraged in and grabbed hold of Bardiche. Letting his weapon disappear, he elbow checked Fate right in the face to disorient her, and then used the momentary shock to gain control of the two of them and spun around, hurling Fate right into the oncoming cloud of shooter shots.

They winked out instantly as Nanoha had prepared, but Signum wasn't so lucky when for the second time, herself and Fate collided.

Nanoha snapped her attention from the two to discover a cluster of green blades coming right at her. Without so much as a thought, her own barrier went up and they exploded harmlessly.

With her best attempt at a blood curdling scream that her deceptively young body could produce, Vita joined the battle, Graf Eisen about five times larger than her head now. The man crossed both his arms, his weapon becoming a double thick shield in front of him as she struck, sending him flying towards the ground... The knight kept momentum and chased right after him.

He landed like a cat on all fours, then immediately back-flipped out of the spot with a swirl of cape, just half a second before Graf Eisen slammed into the same place and turned it into a small crater. Reacting quickly, he snapped forward and stomped down on the head of the giant war hammer, reaching back to form a sword. Vita would have to either let go or be decapitated on the spot.

Luckily, this was the moment Signum came to her aid with redoubled fury, Levantin just narrowly missing a counter-decapitation as she went right for a reflexive kill strike.

The man jumped back from the blade, twisting in the air as he landed right on it then bounced away, hurling himself into the sky once more and tossing more exploding dagger attacks to cover his flight.

[SCYTHE FORM]

Forming a shield on his forearm and reaching up, he blocked a strike from Bardiche as Fate brought the blade down on him from a blind spot. He whipped around the moment the blade came to a stop on his arm, his free hand forming a dagger while he leveraged in towards Fate and gave a slash. Yelping, Fate backpedaled as the blade nicked her barrier jacket right across her belly, exposing skin from the strike. A sword would have been more effective, but it probably would have been too slow to hit.

Nanoha narrowed her eyes at the exchange but couldn't find a clear opening to attack just yet. The masked man was too close to Fate. He obviously knew this, as he seemed to be deliberately staying as close to someone as he could. Amidst a flurry of exchanges with Fate, he smashed and opening and twirled. Right in the middle of it he hurled blades at Nanoha.

Shifting lightly to avoid them, she realized he wasn't ignoring anyone, best to stay on one's toes then.

Driving a knee into Fate's stomach, the man spun and countered a flanking maneuver by Signum as she rose again into the fight, going back into Bo staff -motions as he did so. Then Vita came right up the middle and went for another overhead smash. Pushing off Signum's sword, he braced the staff with both hands and caught the blow just behind the actual head of the hammer. Then he twisted and dumped her momentum off towards Signum. Twisting to form a blade to block a blow from Bardiche, the man fired an open palm shot at the two from his free hand. Then flipped into the inverted and kicked Fate square in the back as he came around, driving her into the other two to crash into a tree before falling to the ground.

Nanoha saw her opening. This guy was just too mobile. He was depending on avoidance to hold his ground. There were ways of dealing with that.

Coming around to hurl daggers at the collapsed form, the man suddenly found his arm locked in place, followed by the other, then his legs and feet. Taking that as her cue, Nanoha brought Raising Heart into position, a cartridge ejecting as she did so.

"..."

His eyes narrowed behind the mask as Nanoha prepared to trump him in brute power.

"BUSTER!!!!!"

With a crack, the pink beam of force fired. This fight was over.

But the man had other plans. The blue orbs on his shoulders flashed to life, the binds around him wavering and shattering. Even as the beam rocketed away from her, Nanoha barely contained her shock as she felt the burst of AMF. With nothing to hold the man up, he dropped right out of the path of the buster shot, arching backwards as the beam ripped through his position just inches from his face.

Recovering his flight, he whipped his arm and hurled four dagger bolts right up along the edge of the beam. Nanoha reacted a moment too late and jerked slightly as one caught her shoulder, cutting into it through her barrier jacket and sending a small mist of blood out from the minor flesh wound.

Nanoha bit her lip to ignore the pain and the urge to grab her shoulder as the man immediately righted himself and zipped at her, reaching his arm back to create a sword. Gripping Raising Heart, she took a defensive stance as the man laid into her.

* * *

"You're not going to believe this guys, but he's taking them ALL on and WINNING!" Fox blurted as she shot overhead once more. "He just dodged a buster from Stars and has her pinned in hand to hand range. The others look to be picking themselves up."

"Jesus Fucking Christ!" Roland swore, fighting not to be drowned out by static. "That's got to be what? Double S level skill?"

"Whatever it is," Fox responded. "He's kicking ass and taking names."

"I want as many people on station as possible then," Roland ordered. "Take him out before he kills someone!"

* * *

Nanoha winced as she took a near miss to her arm. The man was exceptionally fast, and his fluid shifting from daggers to sword to staff and back again was nothing short of nearly impossible to plan against. If he'd been limited to just one weapon style, she'd have won this a while ago, but his ability to manifest whatever shape he desired at will confounded any attempts to effectively fight back. He was a wild card.

The masked man swiped at her once more, his weapon glancing off the head of Raising Heart as Nanoha defended. Then suddenly, as he'd done with Fate earlier, he lashed out and grabbed the device, pulling himself inwards towards Nanoha as his free hand formed a dagger. Nanoha couldn't get away from it and reached up with one hand, grabbing the blade directly. For a second, neither moved as she held the blade an inch away from her neck. The man seemed to regard this move with a certain level of respect, if the curious look coming from the eyes behind that mask was any kind of indicator.

Nanoha could feel the blood dripping from her hand, but dare not let go with him putting so much force into the stab motion that would mean a near instant death. Then, without warning, he jerked backwards, pulling her in his grasp and swinging around, hurling her bodily towards the spot where he'd deposited the rest of his opponents less than thirty seconds ago.

Fate, only half recovered from her own tumble through the tree, jumped back in surprise as Nanoha came through the tree branch above her with a loud crack before slamming into the ground.

"NANOHA!"

Nanoha winced before quickly sitting up.

"I'm okay."

They all looked up as the masked man settled into a vertical stance once more, as if standing on an invisible platform above them.

"He's extremely clinical in his style," Signum nodded, sporting a minor black eye. She'd taken Graf Eisen to the face in their little tumble. Vita in turn had a cut where Levantin had accidentally come across her leg, her battle dress torn and shredded below that point. "No taunting, no gloating, no hesitation, not even speaking. He just fights."

"He's stalling," Nanoha stood up. "All the more reason to take him down quickly."

As she said that, she looked up at the figure as he stood, a white star coming to life in the sky above and behind him.

'THUMP-BOOM!'

The man tilted his head slightly, keeping one eye on the group below him, as he seemed to casually regard the newest reinforcements. What was one more to a fight?

With a viciously loud, blood curdling battle cry, Lynn came out of her dive with a crack that almost sounded like a buster in itself as she brought her battle-axe high over her head.

The man went on the defensive immediately, spinning about and creating a staff to guard against the blow as it prepared to fall.

The Waldron came down with full force as Lynn struck the man like a falling meteor. The axe slammed into the green energy given form. And for the briefest of moments, it held, creating a shock wave that billowed the man's cape.

But under the incredible force of Lynn's signature strike, the staff finally gave in, and snapped clean in two. Since Lynn carried so much momentum in a downward stroke, the masked man had more than enough time to display total shock to everyone close enough to see it. Lynn continued on to the ground to slam into it with the force of a small truck, cratering it around her feet as above her, the man tumbled backwards and landed lightly on the ground himself.

After a second, she stood up and faced him, swinging Waldron down and to the side as she began to walk towards him with a certain air of Menace not even Signum managed at her most fierce.

"YOU…" She began. "I know you. I could never forget the face of the man who killed my friends, nearly killed me, and left me to die half buried in the burning rubble of a collapsed building."

The masked man cocked his head to the side as if to question her. Nanoha noted how Lynn had seemed to keep her channel closed when she said that. This was personal.

The man took a fresh battle stance as Lynn readied her axe, still marching forward.

"I'm bringing you in," she growled. "Mister, Kage."

"That's our Cue!" Signum kicked into the air, Levantin ejecting a cartridge.

"Right behind you!" Vita snapped as Graf Eisen performed similar.

Nanoha and Fate looked at each other and nodded, bolting in separate directions.

Lynn scowled and crouched in, then suddenly shot forward. Mr. Kage sidestepped and parried the strike. The enforcer immediately blurred away as Fate shot in from a disjointed angle. The man reformed his staff and began to parry Bardiche as Signum planted herself beside him and tried a horizontal slash.

Lynn came out of her high speed Blur, her face a mask of concentration as she jabbed with Waldron from the open spot. The man leapt into the air and immediately twisted to avoid Graf Eisen caving his skull in. His staff flashed and became a pair of wicked short swords as he began to twist about three sets of weapons, Lynn having once more vanished in a blur of Flash Dance.

Since only two or three could really attack simultaneously, Nanoha fell back and began charging for a buster shot, should the opening present itself.

Vita was limited in her motions and knew it as well. With such packed grouping, hammer strikes in a horizontal fashion would be silly. Falling back from the pack of attackers, she eyed Nanoha across the way and started forming her Swallow Flier attack.

In the blur of the melee, Mr. Kage shifted his short swords into shields and let go of a dagger swarm with a swing, forcing Vita to duck as a blur of green ripped into the newly formed metal spheres. Then he spun again, hurling a dagger at the ground in a seemingly random direction. With a blast of dirt, Lynn suddenly came out of her blurring high-speed dash and tumbled several meters to land upside down against a tree.

Signum and Fate redoubled their strikes, coming in fast from each side. The masked man crossed his arms, his shields overlapping as he fell back to the ground and then planted his feet. With a hefty thrust, he pushed them outwards, causing them to expand as he did so, catching both mages in preparation for their own strikes.

Nanoha saw her opportunity.

"Diviiiiiine..."

With the flick of the wrist, a green dagger hit the glowing orb. Nanoha realized she needed to stop drawing this attack out so long as the orb exploded in a burst of magical energy.

In the commotion, Mr. Kage started walking forward, his hand's snapping to create new blades. Then with a second snap they elongated. With a third snap of the wrist they started to waiver around. And with a fourth snap the ends split into three parts.

Signum immediately recognized them as flail whips, but made of energy. This guy was something else.

He began to cycle them, causing the long ribbons of green to curl and snap around his body as he began to advance on them in an utmost confident fashion.

Nanoha dropped back quickly, erecting a shield as she saw a flail snap at her. The others quickly began to work on the defensive as the flails snapped about quickly and precisely. Now Mr. Kage was on the offensive, his latest weapon style having as much distance as Signum's Levantine in its Snake Form, and the unpredictability to strike at anyone with almost no warning.

Vita was the first to realize what the true intent was when suddenly the flail snapped about and caught her by the foot. With a quick yank, he flung her into the air.

Fate managed to dodge a strike aimed at her, but he quickly brought Vita around with a spin and let her go to slam into Fate full force.

Signum tried to charge in and close inside the effective striking radius, but only got herself wrapped up with her arms pinned to her sides before she was summarily launched straight at Nanoha.

Realizing she would hurt Signum if she left her defense up, Nanoha was forced to drop her shield, allowing the knight to plow directly into her as she tried to backpedal to lessen the impact... They still landed in a heap on the ground not too far from where Vita and Fate had likewise landed.

With a blur, Lynn appeared right at point blank range, Waldron already high to strike. The whips blinked out as the man spun sideways, the Axe passing an inch away from his face, and with a continuation of his spin, he brought a closed fist around in a backhand.

'CRACK!'

Lynn's eyes snapped wide as she felt the blow to the base of her skull, her vision instantly going double as she stumbled forward, her eyes crossing. Then she dropped to her knees, and fell flat on her face. Waldron clanging to the ground by her side.

And for the first time in several minutes, there was silence. Mr. Kage looked at each of the mage groups, once again trying to untangle themselves from each other, then down at Lynn. His shoulders heaved in a sigh as he raised his hand.

Both pairs of mages froze when they saw the green sword snap to life over his head, the ground around him beginning to sparkle slightly.

"LYNN!"

"LYNN!"

Nanoha shut her eyes as the man swung.

"CRACK! BAM!!!"

Opening one eye, Nanoha was surprised to note the blow hadn't quite fallen.

The reason seemed to be the blade had been stopped in mid air... by a hand?

A hand attached to a very muscular looking arm.

Blinking away a little combat tunnel vision, she noticed the fading remains of a transport spell around an extremely muscular and extremely grizzled-looking old man. His hair graying and spiky around the large bald spot on top. His glare was met only by total and complete shock from the masked man.

"That is MY disciple you just tried to kill," he snarled in a low tone that sounded like a growling tiger. As if to emphasize his point, he tightened his grip on the blade, not even drawing a single drop of blood. Then suddenly, the glowing weapon cracked and shattered. The masked man stepped back quickly.

"But seeing as you did manage to take her, and all these aces on single handedly," the muscular man continued... "You may be..."

He tightened his fist, flexing his biceps as he did so with a sound similar to stretching leather. He sneered at the masked man as sparks of lightning based magic danced across his arm.

"...A worthy opponent."

And then the hammer fell. Mr. Kage had no time to react as a vicious punch caught him straight in the face. This was quickly followed up with; Nanoha tried to keep track. One, two, four... seven... TEN lightning fast punches, not a single one met with any sort of defensive counter. On the tenth blow, the old man didn't even connect. The concussion of air from his swing alone hit so hard that the terrorist leader went flying backwards a good twenty meters and nearly crashed over the hover sled.

Recovering his footing in an attempt to gain some dignity, the masked figure stood up, carefully placing one gloved hand on his mask as he noticed the long crack in it. The old man scoffed.

"Is that all you've got?!"

He crossed his arms and raised his chin a little bit, but his eyes remained narrow, and directly on his opponent.

"I'm amazed a terrorist of your caliber menaced us this long. You're not even worth my breath."

After ensuring the mask was secure, Mr. Kage took two steps forward, creating his energy sword again, then froze.

[LOAD CARTRIDGE!]

[EXPLOSION!]

Signum and Fate were in the air once more, powerful bombardment spells forming around them. With a snap, Nanoha joined the group, followed shortly by Vita. Mr. Kage seemed to regard this sudden level of pure firepower with caution, as his blade vanished and he took a step back, relaxing to that neutral stance he'd used so often, his arms hidden under his cape. After a few seconds, he took a look to his left and to his right, then raised his arm. Around him, the glowing circle of the transport spell began to light up.

"Running away?!" The old man spat, as if in disgust. "HMPH!"

"Don't let him finish!" Nanoha cried, charging a divine buster as Fate began charging a Trident Smasher.

"Don't waste your energy," the old man interrupted. "He's already gone."

True to the word, there was a green flash, and the loaded hover sled, as well as the masked opponent, vanished from sight.

"However, you may wish to do something about the cannon fodder," the old man continued in mild annoyance. Around them, the resounding click of nearly a hundred automatic weapons greeted them. Nanoha's eyes nearly bugged out noticing some of what Roland had called 'Fifty-cals' being pointed at them.

"Fire on my Fire!" Someone shouted. Without a second thought, she flung up a Protection Powered.

With a roar, the fanatics opened up, peppering the magical shield with heavy automatic fire. It seemed that Mr. Kage had bought plenty of time for them to bring as much armaments to bear as possible. Nanoha felt the strain already building as the barrier held. Fate quickly joined her to reinforce the defense with one of her own. In the middle of it all, the old man stood along side Lynn's unconscious form, arms crossed. A kind of chagrinned scowl on his face.

"Most obnoxious," he rumbled, then turned to Vita.

"You, Brat," he snapped. Vita resisted the urge to put Graf Eisen in Gigant Form and smash him right there. "You know transport magic don't you?"

"Yes I do," Vita snapped back, glaring at the rude old man. BRAT??? Why I oughta'...

"Then perhaps you should use it and send us some place a little less hostile," he continued. "We can't shoot out like this, and they're not likely to run out of ammo anytime soon."

To emphasize, he motioned at a couple people acting as runners into the disposal storage bunker, and more coming out with cases of ammunition.

Vita grimaced at his clearly logical statement as Nanoha's face tightened under the strain, and for just a second considered leaving the old man behind to eat automatic weapons. He looked like he really could eat bullets, and then spit them out as return fire.

With a flick of Graf Eisen, she formed the transport markings. The man bent down and picked up Lynn and Waldron as she did so.

"Any time," he rumbled, seeming to regard the events around him with little more interest than dust under a carpet.

Vita muttered a silent curse and activated the magic. After a few seconds, the group felt the vertigo of transport as she jumped them clear of the area.

* * *

A moment later, the world came back into focus and they were standing within the confines of the Test Operations Command Center... TICTOCC.

Nearby, Don held what appeared to be a large wrench up like a baseball bat, obviously ready to smash anyone who wasn't supposed to be there upside the head. After a second, he managed to identify who it was aimed at, and lowered it.

[SAFETY FIRST]

Nobody really paid attention to that line. Cooper was over in a corner with a panel removed from a wall below Cherry's monitor. Martin was over in the operations command console looking to the back of the room.

"You got out of there alive," he began. "From what Fox was saying-" He broke off and shot to his feet. "Admiral Mishima! Sir!"

Everyone froze and turned to the old man carrying Lynn. Cooper jumped from the shout and bumped his head from somewhere inside the cluster of wires he was half buried in.

"It's about time someone around here recognized me," the Admiral growled, stepping forward and handing Lynn off to Signum. "Where's General Roland? It's time to stop toying with these terrorists."

"Getting myself better equipped," Roland's voice crackled over the short wave across the entire room. Again, he was fighting to be heard over the whining. "Nice to hear your voice Kanemitsu... when'd you get here?"

"I just arrived," the Admiral admitted. "Sorry I'm a little late. Orbit transition took longer than expected and I was having trouble burning through the blanket AMF fields in the area. It took a while to get a good position lock on the largest threat."

"That's fine," Roland stated. "Oh, one moment."

There was a crackle as the whine intensified.

"Target! Four, five, nine meters..." came over, barely audible.

"Roger, four five nine meters..."

"SHOOT!"

"On the way!"

'POP CLANG!'

"Oh man look at them scatter!"

There was a crackle and Roland returned.

"Sorry, still out-voting these punks. What's the sitrep Admiral?"

"The airbase is in the clear, and complex C is ninety percent under control last time I checked." The Admiral rumbled. "Looks like they've got the Disposal Facility completely locked down though. Even with these Aces, we won't be able to take it back fast enough."

"And we can't let them just walk out of here," Roland returned. "There's over five hundred tons of explosives buried in that facility. That's a lot of 'BOOM' to let the terrorists walk away with."

There was a pause.

"And they're just sitting on top of it," Mishima pointed out.

"Are you suggesting what I THINK you're suggesting?" The general asked.

"If we're on the same wavelength…" the admiral crossed his arms. "If they want boom, give them boom."

"NO WAY!" Don cut in, realizing what they were going on about "That's ten feet of heavy reinforced concrete with three layers of defense spells laced in it. It would take an S class or better spell at very close range to penetrate it. And the explosion that results from five hundred tons of explosives would make any such attack a suicide mission!"

Mishima turned and looked at the master situation display showing the Archipelago. "I could have the Tsunami Arc the site from orbit…"

"Not THAT much boom admiral," Roland commented. "I'm going to be buried under paperwork as it is with this fiasco."

"I have a solution," EDI suddenly resonated across the room. Lime's screen blinked to be replaced with an inventory display. "Next week's test schedule was for a test of multi layered barrier defenses against various types of attack."

"And?" Roland seemed to be hanging on EDI's concept.

"One of the test sequences was the application of a moderately up to date test on bunker penetration weapons," the AI continued. The inventory list scrolled down and selected an item, a picture of a fairly generic missile flashed onto the screen. "Mouse one was Equipped with two AGM-130 Bunker Busters in advance preparation for that test."

"The AGM-130 is capable of penetration up to eleven feet of solid reinforced concrete," Cherry interrupted. "A direct hit would punch through and breach the defense spells enough to start a fire."

"That's good enough!" Roland snapped back. "Make it happen!"

Martin spun in his chair and hit a comm switch.

"GEOFRONT to Mouse One," he snapped in his authoritative tone. "Do you copy?"

"Mouse One here..." came the response. "Where's the fire chief?"

"Listen carefully," Martin began... Everyone else looked at the screen, examining a photo of the AGM-130.

* * *

At twenty thousand feet, Mouse One banked around towards Complex D in his modified F-15, carrying two live, mass based weapons onboard.

"Nose on target Vector," he crackled over the radio. "Confirmation is Smoke on the Water. I'm in."

"Roger that," Martin responded. "You're cleared hot. EDI will lase the target for you and give you the target vector."

There was a crack as EDI shot by several thousand feet below at mach four, ripping towards Angel Island. Rising up along side Mouse One, Fox brought her Arwing into formation to cover him.

"Roger, Master Arm, Mouse One Hot, arming AGM-130..."

* * *

On D complex, EDI cut speed as he came around the main entrance to the storage bunker. Almost immediately, the massed fanatics defended their transport circle with heavy small arms fire. Unfortunately for them, they had no concept for speed and altitude as EDI ripped around and shot away, having marked the target and keeping a laser designation right on it.

"Area confirmed clear of friendlies," he resonated on an open channel. "Cleared to fire."

Mouse one saw the bracket go green on his HUD, and squeezed the trigger.

"Missile away!"

* * *

The missile dropped away from the Test Force modified F-15, it's rocket motor igniting almost immediately and hurling the weapon away from the jet at mach three. Those around the transport pad saw the white trail of smoke it left as it closed on them. Eyes followed it in silent apprehension as it curved in overhead, arching down into the bunker, and that was the last thing anyone on the ground ever saw.

Fox saw the brilliant flash and the billowing smoke cloud as far away as she was along side Mouse One, the blast wave creating a semi-transparent dome of condensing water vapor as it rushed out from what had previously been the Seimei Mass Weapons Disposal Facility. Small yellow streaks of burning debris were launched from the cloud over a mile into the sky as that entire section of Angel Island was obliterated by five hundred tons of high explosive. Her jaw dropped.

"Oh my god..." she mumbled.

* * *

Inside TICTOCC, they all paused as they felt the ground shudder slightly around the same time.

"Jeez…" Don grumbled. "You could restart the volcano chain with that."

No matter where you were on the Archipelago, you could hear, and see the blast from the D complex island as it rose high into the sky.

"I confirm the target has been Neutralized," EDI resonated over the channel. "No further transport magic can be detected from the target area."

* * *

Logan nearly tripped and fell on his face when the sound of the explosion passed over him. Pausing from his run, he stared at the rising cloud coming from the northwest, fragments of white-hot debris high in the sky.

Feeling his panic redouble, he turned quickly and started to run towards his escape point. Everything had gone completely to hell so fast, that it was impossible to understand. He had to get out of here and make good on his escape before-

'THUD!'

Crash came down ten meters in front of him, wires from a drone he'd just destroyed still gripped in one armored hand.

"Nice try Logan," he growled. "But you're not getting away so easily after the shit you've pulled."

Logan spun and ran the other way. The two drones that he'd put on voice command earlier were just a few meters back. A pair of Type IIIs would be more than enough to handle ANY mage for a minute or two. Long enough to get to his escape point. He'd have to risk being tracked but he'd be able to make a second jump before they could catch up. But he wasn't going to be sacrific-

One of the drones turned inside out and exploded in a hail of debris. Scrap metal raining against the concrete wall of one of the nearby test buildings. The violent event was even more sudden and noisy than the distant explosion on Angel Island. The logistics manager fell flat on his back both from surprise, and the concussion. Crash too, took an involuntary step back.

"HOLY SHIT!"

After a second Logan realized the Type III heavy drone had been taken out. And not just taken out, obliterated. Was that possible? That was a single shot! Could an S rank mage do that?

The second drone began to pivot in place, turning to face whatever the new threat was. Just as it reached position and identified its opposition, there was a loud crack and it too dissolved into a cloud of flying metal parts.

Logan tried to pick himself back as a strange whine grew in intensity from somewhere around the corner. Along with the whine, came the distinct sound of someone playing heavy rock. After a few seconds, the ground began to shake, and then with a metallic roar, a squat, tan, tracked vehicle he'd never seen before came around the corner.

It was covered in flat, angular armor, and had one large gun sticking out of a turret on the top.

The vehicle rolled right up to Logan, causing him to scramble back to his feet and stumble towards Crash in sheer panic before it came to a stop. The large gun on the front depressed downwards, aiming straight at him. And he froze in the realization he was facing a Tank. A true, honest to goodness, main battle-tank. The biggest tank the TSAB had was a light tank. And many of those were destroyed during the Cradle Incident! This, this…

"You know what my favorite part of Those Who Hunt Elves is?"

Logan looked up. Roland, previously unnoticed, was learning half way out of a hatch on the top of the vehicle, a boom box next to him obviously the source of the music he'd been hearing.

"I'll tell you what my favorite part is," the General continued. "It's the part where a little girl driving a Japanese Type-74 Main Battle Tank blows an old pirate ship right out of the water in a single shot. This is about the level of overkill you're up against when you decide these pathetic little machines are a match for seventy-four tons of good ol' fashioned WHOOPASS. The TSAB don't make them like this boy."

He narrowed his eyes.

"I might be glorifying my home a little and pushing TSAB policy using this vehicle. But I decided to put it to the vote. And I'm afraid the one-twenty smoothbore won the vote."

He paused, turning the volume on his boom box down.

"As for you, I'm afraid you won't be seeing home for a long... LONG time."

Logan stumbled slightly, and fell to his knees.

"Cause I'm TNT" the boom box blared on.


End file.
